Arthritis and Athletes' Damaged Joints May Now Be Treated with Lubricin Injections, Study Shows

New research conducted at Brown University has shown that an absence of protein around the joints called lubricin creates friction in the joints and leads to wear and tear. Their study is now leading to lubricin injection treatments for inflamed and damaged joints that may be a blessing to arthritis sufferers and athletes all over the world.

Researchists at Brown University have conducted a unique and never-been-done-before study connecting an increase in friction to the early wear in joints. Dr. Gregory Jay, a Rhode Island Hospital emergency physician and associate professor of emergency medicine and engineering at Brown University led the study. For twenty years Dr. Jay has been studying lubricin's role in reducing friction between parallel layers of cartilage inside joints. He has been studying how lubricin acts as forming a boundary around the cartilage and as a lubricant. Dr. Jay used this new study to examine if lubricin actually prevents wear and surface damage in joints.

The research was conducted by studying cartilage from the knees of mice which were bred not to produce lubricin. The researchists found that the mice were born with smooth cartilage, but after two weeks of motion, the mice's joints slowly began to show signs of wear. When cartilage begins to wear, its fibers begin to break up, which makes the surface of the cartilage rough and jagged. An early sign of joint disease or injury is wear. The scientists could see the early signs of joint disease when they examined the mice's cartilage under a microscope.

The scientists also examined lubricin protein under an atomic force microscope. When they viewed lubricin at the nanosclae they could see that the molecule's of the protein looked like a mesh, or a basket weave, and were composed of many rows of fibers that were interlocked. The mesh format of the molecule actually repelled a microscope probe with water and electrical charges, showing how lubricin works to keep parallel layers of cartilage separate.