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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

chondrocyte apoptosis, osteoarthritis, Dmm, Disproportionate micromellia mice

College

Life Sciences

Department

Physiology and Developmental Biology

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive disease resulting in the degeneration of synovial joint cartilage and is the leading cause of chronic disability in the elderly1. Despite the prevalence of this disease, its pathogenesis is poorly understood. There is need for low cost, short generation animal model to study this disease. For this, we used a proven mouse model as the means for researching OA, the Disproportionate micromellia (Dmm) mouse which has been shown to develop early onset OA. One mechanism involved in OA that we are specifically researching is programmed cell death, apoptosis, of cartilage cells, chondrocytes and how it is directly correlated to the progression of OA. Mason et al reported apoptosis to be linearly correlated with the severity of osteoarthritis in the STR/ort mouse model using the terminal deoxynucleotidal transferase biotin-dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay2. An increase in apoptotic cells compared with normal cells has also been demonstrated in human osteoarthritis also using TUNEL3. Our study has involved a relatively new technique of confirming the presence of apoptotic cells in chondrocytes, In Situ Oligoligation (ISOL).

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