New Treatment for Osteoarthritis.

The osteoporosis drug teriparatide (Forteo) stopped and even reversed cartilage loss in a mouse model of osteoarthritis," according to University of Rochester researchers. During the study, they severed the "medial collateral ligament in the legs of mice, which quickly leads to degeneration of cartilage in the affected joints -- much as similar injuries in human knees eventually induce osteoarthritis." After some eight weeks, "cartilage area was reduced about 20 percent, compared with mice given a sham surgery." Then, the injured mice received either "teriparatide or placebo immediately, continuing treatment for 12 weeks." By trial end, "teriparatide was associated with 20 to 27 percent more joint cartilage than in placebo-treated mice." The team was even more intrigued by the "mice who did not start drug treatment until eight weeks after the injury." Those mice "had 31 to 35 percent more cartilage at study week 12 (four weeks after starting treatment) than placebo-treated mice."