Debris, Wear, and Cellular Pathways (written by Elizabeth Hofheinz @ OTW)
Now researchers at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have identified a number of cellular pathways that are involved in this response to the debris resulting from everyday use and wear which often result in pain, damage and inflammation. These findings are summarized in a review paper published in the October 2011 print edition of Nature Reviews: Rheumatology.
When asked what they were surprised to learn, co-author Neil J. Cobelli, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center and Professor of Clinical Surgery at Einstein, told OTW,
There was a fairly good working understanding of the end result - that small particles of wear debris can cause loss of bone around a prosthesis. Some of the cell types involved were also known. However, we have identified several precise cellular mechanisms that lead to a common set of inflammatory processes resulting in the up regulation of bone resorption. It had been hoped that smaller particles of debris might be less reactive but that does not appear to be true.
Co-author L...
