Manchester researchers win more funding to investigate osteoarthritis
A research team in Manchester has been awarded funding from leading medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign for new work into osteoarthritis.
Christopher Brew at the University's School of Medicine has been awarded a two-year ARC Clinical Research Fellowship of £88,639 to look a why joints damaged by degeneration attempt - but fail - to repair themselves.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common, degenerative form of joint disease, affecting around 1.5m mainly older people in the UK. There is no cure, and current treatments do no more than control painful symptoms, often with serious side effects.
OA happens when cartilage, the slippery substance that stops bones rubbing together, wears away. The loss of cartilage and the wearing of bone can change the shape joint, causing deformity.
"The disease process of OA is not well understood, although it may involve a failed attempt at repair of articular cartilage by cells known as chondrocytes," explained Mr Brew. " Unfortunately the new cartilage fails, as some of the cells begin to turn it to bone. The purpose of the study is to investigate what controls the behaviour of these cells in OA, and the ultimate hope is to learn why the repair process fails and how it can be controlled."
The research team will compare cells from damaged tissue from joints and those from normal joint cartilage.
Manchester is already a leading centre for ARC-funded research, particularly into osteoarthritis. The charity currently pumps in £4.38m into work in the School of Biological Sciences, the Musculoskeletal Research Group, and other research centres. It also puts £1.4m a year into its epidemiology unit at the university.
