RESEARCH - Weekly intraarticular injections of bone morphogenetic protein-7 inhibits OA progression

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Arthritis Research & Therapy 2008, 10:R118doi:10.1186/ar2521

Published: 30 September 2008

Research article

Weekly intraarticular injections of bone morphogenetic protein-7

inhibits osteoarthritis progression

Masaya Hayashi , Takeshi Muneta , Young-Jin Ju , Tomoyuki Mochizuki

and Ichiro Sekiya

Abstract (provisional)

Introduction

We investigated the effect of a weekly intra-articular injection of

bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) on the prevention of

osteoarthritis in rabbits with anterior cruciate ligament

transections.

Methods

First, 36 knee joints were randomly divided into four groups: 50, 500,

5000 ng BMP-7, and control groups. Knee cartilage was evaluated at 4,

8, and 12 weeks. Then, to ignore individual differences, 500 ng BMP-7

was injected into one knee, and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) into

the other, and both knees were compared at 4, 8, and 12 weeks (n = 5).

For pharmacokinetic analysis, cartilage was harvested at 1 hour and 1,

2, 4 and 7 days after knee injection of 500 ng BMP-7 or PBS (n = 3).

Results

Histological scores in the 500 and 5000 ng BMP-7 groups were

significantly better than those in the other groups at 12 weeks.

Matched pair analysis demonstrated that both macroscopic and

histological scores in the 500 ng BMP-7 group were better than those

in the control group. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed higher

BMP-7 expression by chondrocytes in the BMP-7 injected knees.

Histology of whole knee and quantitative micro computed tomography

(CT) analysis showed that weekly injections of 500 ng BMP-7 did not

induce synovial fibrosis, ectopic bone or osteophyte formation. As

detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), BMP-7

concentration in the cartilage tissue was still higher in the BMP-7

treated group 7 days after the injection.

Conclusions

Weekly intra-articular injections of BMP-7 inhibited osteoarthritis

progression. Obvious adverse effects were not observed. BMP-7

concentration and expression in cartilage were still higher 7 days

after injection.

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Read the full article here:

http://arthritis-research.com/content/pdf/ar2521.pdf

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