Research on Arthritis.

Last updated Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Promising leads

What is the future of arthritis research?

Research in arthritis holds great promise for discoveries that will help many people.

Scientists may be able to correct malfunctions in the immune system. They may be able to immunize people against bacteria or viruses that trigger some forms of arthritis. And they may be able to prevent types of arthritis from ever happening by identifying and eliminating those factors that cause them. One of the biggest areas of future research will concern genes and gene replacement. Some forms of arthritis probably result from genes that have the wrong set of instructions. For example, several types of gout result from such genes. If scientists can find out exactly how genes influence the development of a particular type of arthritis, they may eventually be able to replace a gene that increases your risk for disease with one that carries no increased risk. Sometimes, scientists find things that cause or increase our risk for disease by studying differences in patterns of disease in large groups of people. This area of study is called epidemiology. For example, almost everyone over 65 shows signs of osteoarthritis on X-ray. But, only one-third of those with X-ray evidence of disease ever feel symptoms. Why? Studies of differences in disease patterns may offer us some clues to the answers. Women get some arthritis-related diseases--such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and osteoporosis--more often than men. Scientists are now studying the effects of both male and female hormones in some types of arthritis.

For instance, women develop osteoporosis after menopause, when a drop occurs in levels of the female hormone estrogen. Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus may temporarily disappear while a woman is pregnant, when female hormone levels are high, only to come back after the baby is born. Yet, an eight year study of nurses failed to show a reduced risk for rheumatoid arthritis in women who used birth control pills containing estrogen. Researchers are trying to discover how hormones work to protect or expose people to some arthritis related diseases.