(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, D.C., (Oct. 20, 2010) -- A team of researchers in North Carolina has discovered that lubricin, a synovial fluid glycoprotein, reduces wear to bone cartilage. This result, which has implications for the treatment of sufferers of osteoarthritis, will be presented today at the AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition, taking place this week at the Albuquerque Convention Center in New Mexico.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, the degenerative joint disease. It mostly affects cartilage, the slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones where they meet to form a joint, and allows bones to glide over one another with limited friction and wear. Osteoarthritis causes cartilage to be broken down through a vicious cycle of mechanical and metabolic factors, and mechanical wear of cartilage is widely believed to contribute to this process. Eventually, the bones under the cartilage rub together, which can cause a tremendous amount of pain, swelling, and loss of motion at the joint.
Many studies have examined cartilage friction and lubrication with the goal of understanding cartilage wear prevention. Very few studies have focused on measuring wear directly, though, and until now no other studies have directly assessed the effects of synovial fluid constituents in mediating wear.
"We measured the effect of the synovial fluid protein lubricin on cartilage wear," explains research team member Stefan Zauscher, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, as well as biomedical engineering, at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
"Our measurements were performed at the surface level using an atomic force microscope with pressures and sliding speeds comparable to those seen in joints. The measurements show a direct link between lubricin in solution and reduction of cartilage wear," says Zauscher.
This indicates that lubricin is important for cartilage preservation physiologically, which may have important implications for treating or preventing joint disease in the future.
###
The presentation, "Lubricin Reduces Microscale Cartilage Wear" is at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 20, 2010.
ABSTRACT: http://www.avssymposium.org/Open/SearchPapers.aspx?PaperNumber=TR+NS+SS-WeA-7
MORE INFORMATION FOR JOURNALISTS
The AVS 57th International Symposium and Exhibition is being held October 17-22, 2010, at the Albuquerque Convention Center, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The meeting includes more than 1,200 talks and posters presented in more than 130 technical sessions. All meeting information, including directions to the Convention Center, can be found at:
http://www2.avs.org/symposium/
REGISTRATION -- Staff reporters and professional freelance journalists working on assignment are invited to attend the conference free of charge. Journalist registration instructions can be found at:
http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS57/pdfs/pressinvite.pdf
PRESS ROOM
The AVS press room will be located in East Lobby of the Albuquerque Convention Center. Press room hours are Monday-Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The phone number there is 408-205-0595. Press Kits containing company product announcements and other news will be available on CD-ROM in the press room. Also access the online press room at: http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS57/pages/press57.html
USEFUL LINKS
Complete Program: http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS57/pages/tech_program.html
Searchable abstracts: http://www.avssymposium.org/Open/SearchPapers.aspx
Topical Conferences: http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS57/pages/tech_topconf.html#EN
Meeting Home Page: http://www2.avs.org/symposium/
PLENARY SESSION
The plenary talk, "Carbon Nanotubes and Single Sheet Graphene," which will be at noon on Monday, October 18, 2010 in Ballroom B of the Albuquerque Convention Center. See: http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS57/pages/sessions_lecturer.html
SPECIAL TUTORIALS
AVS promotes communication, dissemination of knowledge, recommended practices, research, and education in a broad range of technologically relevant topics. One way that it does this is by offering special tutorials in areas such as:
- Graphene Tutorial (Sunday, October 17, 2010, 1:00-5:00 p.m.)
- Tutorial on Nanoparticle Characterization and Toxicity: Significant Challenges and Critical Needs (Sunday, October 17, 2010, 1:00-5:00 p.m.)
To access the complete descriptions of these special tutorials, see:
http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS57/pages/special_tutorials.html
ABOUT AVS
As a professional membership organization, AVS fosters networking within the materials, processing, and interfaces community at various local, national or international meetings and exhibits throughout the year. AVS publishes four journals, honors and recognizes members through its prestigious awards program, offers training and other technical resources, as well as career services.
END
WASHINGTON, D.C., (Oct. 20, 2010) -- The capture and storage of carbon dioxide in deep geologic formations, a strategy for minimizing the impacts of greenhouse gases on global warming, may currently be technologically feasible. But one key question that must be answered is the ability of subsurface materials to maintain their integrity in the presence of supercritical carbon dioxide -- a fluid state in which the gas is condensed at high temperature and pressure into a liquid.
A research team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed tools in EMSL, a ...
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The JC polyomavirus doesn't strike very often, but it's a mean bug that preys on people with weakened immune systems, including people with AIDS, and almost always kills them. Now an international team of scientists at Brown University, the University of Tübingen in Germany, and Imperial College in London has found a potential Achilles Heel and painted a target on it: The virus must bind to a very specific sugar molecule dangling from the side of the brain cells it attacks.
Like the rebel forces in the 1977 classic movie Star Wars, ...
The last two decades have seen tremendous progress in understanding the genetic basis of human brain disorders. Research developments in this area have revealed fundamental insights into the genes and molecular pathways that underlie neurological and psychiatric diseases. In a new series of review articles published by Cell Press in the October 21 issue of the journal Neuron, experts in the field discuss exciting recent advances in neurogenetics research and the potential implications for the treatment of these devastating disorders.
Genetic discoveries have transformed ...
NEW YORK (Oct. 20, 2010) -- In a report published in the Oct. 20 issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center say animal and human data suggest gene therapy to the brain may be able to treat patients with major depression who do not respond to traditional drug treatment.
The researchers hope to rapidly translate their findings into a human clinical trial using the same kind of gene therapy modality the investigators have pioneered to treat Parkinson's disease. A 45-patient randomized blinded phase II ...
(Boston) - Despite the promising results of the "Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves (PARTNER) trial," featured in the Oct. 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a cardiothoracic surgeon from Boston Medical Center (BMC) believes that surgical aortic-valve replacement should remain the standard treatment of aortic stenosis. In the accompanying editorial, the author argues that Transcatheter aortic-valve implantation (TAVI) should be reserved for patients at inordinately high risk who are not suitable candidates for surgery and who have decreased life expectancy. ...
The evolution of complex life is strictly dependent on mitochondria, the tiny power stations found in all complex cells, according to a new study by Dr Nick Lane, from UCL (University College London), and Dr William Martin, from the University of Dusseldorf.
"The underlying principles are universal. Energy is vital, even in the realm of evolutionary inventions," said Dr Lane, UCL Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment. "Even aliens will need mitochondria."
For 70 years scientists have reasoned that evolution of nucleus was the key to complex life. Now, in ...
In a galaxy far away, an exceptionally massive black hole is traveling around a massive star in an unusually tight orbit. Also odd, the star is not as bright as it should be.
Astronomers have puzzled over this X-ray binary system, named M33 X-7, but no one could explain all of its features. Now a Northwestern University research team has.
The researchers have produced a model of the system's evolutionary history and formation that explains all of the system's observational characteristics: the tight orbit, the large masses of the star and black hole, the X-ray luminosity ...
New space research published this week (Thursday 21 October) in the journal Nature, has settled decades of scientific debate. Researchers from the University of California (UCLA) and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have found the final link between electrons trapped in space and the glow of light from the upper atmosphere known as the diffuse aurora. The research will help us understand 'space weather', with benefits for the satellite, power grid and aviation industries, and how space storms affect the Earth's atmosphere from the top down.
Scientists have long understood ...
A European team of astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has measured the distance to the most remote galaxy so far. By carefully analysing the very faint glow of the galaxy they have found that they are seeing it when the Universe was only about 600 million years old (a redshift of 8.6). These are the first confirmed observations of a galaxy whose light is clearing the opaque hydrogen fog that filled the cosmos at this early time. The results will be presented at an online press conference with the scientists on 19 October 2010, and will appear in the 21 October ...
HOUSTON - Long overshadowed by p53, its famous tumor-suppressing sibling, the p63 gene does the tougher, important job of stifling the spread of cancer to other organs, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the Oct. 21 issue of Nature.
Not only does a specific form of p63 protein block metastasis, but it does so by activating the enzyme Dicer, which plays a pivotal role in the creation of micro RNAs, tiny bits of RNA that regulate a host of cellular processes.
"p63 is a master regulator of metastasis, an important role in its own ...
