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Replacing animal models of osteoarthritis with 3‐dimensional models of articular cartilage and synovium
Author(s) -
Mobasheri Ali,
Shakesheff Kevin,
Shakibaei Mehdi
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.lb11
Subject(s) - osteoarthritis , medicine , cartilage , inflammation , mesenchymal stem cell , articular cartilage , synovial fluid , bioinformatics , disease , pathology , immunology , biology , anatomy , alternative medicine
Osteoarthritis (OA) is an increasingly common clinical problem in ageing humans and companion animals. It affects load‐bearing synovial joints causing pain, inflammation, loss of mobility and significant morbidity. A number of animal models of OA are currently used to study disease pathogenesis and evaluate the efficacy of candidate anti‐inflammatory and anti‐arthritic drugs for clinical development. These animal models may involve injection of inflammatory agents into the joint, surgical creation of joint instability or surgical replication of joint trauma. Such models not only cause a considerable amount of pain and suffering but also none of them have a proven track record of predictability in human disease. Consequently, there is an acute need for developing novel and alternative in vitro models that closely mimic the disease. We have used articular cartilage and synovial tissues from horses and dogs euthanased for unrelated clinical reasons to establish several in vitro models of the joint. We have developed an explant model of articular cartilage inflammation, co‐cultures of primary synoviocytes and chondrocytes as well as 3‐dimensional cultures of chondrocytes and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These approaches will help reduce the number of laboratory animals used in OA research and may provide a realistic alternative to experimental animals.