Osteoarthritis research: on the verge of a revolution?

The first decade of the new millennium has been designated Decade of the Bone and Joint by WHO, the UN, and organisations involved with musculoskeletal disorders. For Paul Dieppe, a lead researcher on osteoarthritis at the University of Bristol, UK, the timing of the initiative is “excellent”. Research into osteoarthritis is at a critical watershed, he says. Although many experts have abandoned the long-held belief that it is a “wear and tear” disease, efforts to understand the pathology of osteoarthritis continue to be “plagued by controversy”, says Dieppe. There are clear indications that osteoarthritis is a disease of the whole joint, yet research efforts continue to concentrate almost exclusively on the role of articular cartilage. This skewed approach has put osteoarthritis research on track to go nowhere slowly, he asserts.