Can Smurfs Predict Who Will Get Arthritis?
A new clinical trial seeks to predict who is most likely to experience osteoarthritis, and to test whether an experimental treatment can prevent it altogether. Physicians are setting their sights on people who sustain a knee injury, seeking to understand why nearly half of them will later go on to develop osteoarthritis. Initial research has shown an enzyme that controls the response of cells to growth factors may in fact be a major cause of osteoarthritis. The enzymes are called “Smad Ubiquitination Regulatory Factors,” or smurfs; but unlike the small, loveable blue cartoon characters, researchers believe that a particular form of these regulatory enzymes, smurf2, might be responsible for America’s leading cause of disability. “We believe that smurf2 controls whether or not a cartilage cell matures and calcifies into hard bone, which is a very good thing when ‘turned on’ in those areas of the body where we are supposed to have hard bone,” said Randy Rosier, MD, PhD, professor of Ortho
