Hormone replacement may relieve arthritis

Hormone replacement therapy applied directly to the joint fluid could help regenerate damaged cartilage tissue in people suffering from advanced osteoarthritis, according to German researchers. The study sought to examine the regenerative potential of a cell type, progenitor chondrogenic cells or CCP, which is in the later stages of osteoarthritis.

The researchers speculated that these cells may be influenced by estrogen, which has been shown to affect bone metabolism, and testosterone. Tissue samples from 372 men and women suffering from arthritis and had undergone a total knee replacement. Most were in the early seventies. In the joint fluid of the participants, they found 17 beta-estradiol, a form of estrogen, which increases state deposition of calcium in both sexes.

And in osteoarthritic tissue CCP found positive for estrogen and androgen receptors. The researchers also found that only CCP were present in the cartilage of osteoarthritis patients in an advanced stage. "We were able to isolate PCC in 95.48 percent of female patients, and 96.97 for males, which makes these cells a good target for future surgery for a large number of patients with osteoarthritis," said Dr.

Nicolai Miosge, August University in Göttingen, in a press release from Wiley-Blackwell, which publishes the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. The findings appear in the April issue of the magazine. "Hormone replacement therapy in joint fluid may help alleviate the effects of osteoarthritis," concluded Miosge, adding that more research is needed.

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