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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Trying to prevent post-traumatic osteoarthritis
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:04
	Publish Date:		2016-06-18 19:00:00
	Description:		More than half of people who suffer traumatic injury to their knee by tearing ligaments in their joint will eventually develop osteoarthritis within ten to fifteen years post-injury. This has huge quality of life issues, as well as the economic burden of medical costs. So researchers are trying to see if they can prevent cartilage degeneration immediately post-injury as a potential therapy. Biomedical scientist Gabriela Loots of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory says there are strains of mice that are not as susceptible to cartilage degeneration. "So, we’re trying to understand what is it about the resistant strains that prevents them from having this cartilage degradation because if we can understand why they don’t degrade, maybe we can understand what molecules we can target to prevent degradation." Loots is working on this study in collaboration with scientists at the University of California, Davis. "We try to understand what happens at the joint level, what are all the factors that contribute to post traumatic osteoarthritis."
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