KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., May 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 650 million people worldwide are affected by osteoarthritis, and few treatment options exist. However, new promising results from an International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory-sponsored experiment detail a tissue chip model that accurately reproduces the conditions under which post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) is initiated.
Published in Frontiers in Space in March, these findings mark an important step forward in understanding and testing treatments for the underlying causes of osteoarthritis and related conditions. In the latest issue of Upward, the official magazine of the ISS National Lab, study author Alan Grodzinsky, a biological engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), discusses experiments on the space station using his team's innovative tissue chip model. The model effectively replicated a joint environment with viable human cartilage, bone, and synovium cocultures, establishing a baseline for understanding and testing treatments for PTOA, which can occur after a traumatic injury to a joint and affects around 20 percent of the millions of people with osteoarthritis.
Despite its prevalence, no U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs exist to treat or prevent osteoarthritis and related conditions.
Grodzinsky commented on the significance of these findings in Upward, stating, "This opens up new possibilities for testing drugs and interventions for os.
