What do bacteria and the Achilles tendon have in common?
If it’s unclear exactly why the FDA decided to re-sound the alarm on a previously established, rare side effect of a common antibiotic, it’s also unclear how an antibiotic that kills bacteria by interfering with their DNA replication could make a tendon so sore that it would rupture. Researchers can make it happen in the lab, but they can’t say anything conclusive about the exact mechanism of injury. People tend to think of tendons, ligaments, and bones as wooden two-by-fours, inanimate structures that simply bear weight and disperse loads. But they are fully alive and under constant revision, and anything that interferes with that, including decreased blood flow, or decreased cell division, stops the remodeling process and makes the tendon more susceptible to injury. Somehow, the fluorquinolones interfere with that. It may be that bacteria and collagen-producing cells in the human body have more in common than we realize. What to make of the latest FDA alert? Here’s how Dr. Anderson,
