By IANS
New York : A protein normally involved in blood clotting also plays a key role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis, a new study has found.
The study, by researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, says the joints disease is seemingly driven by the protein aMB2, which links the blood clotting or fibrin process with the inflammatory cells.
The findings raise the possibility of evolving therapies that interrupt the interaction of inflammatory cells and fibrin, helping arthritis patients, sciencedaily.com reported.
“Our study establishes that fibrin is a powerful determinant of inflammatory joint disease,” said Jay Degen, the study’s lead author.
“These findings also suggest that pharmacologically, interrupting the interaction of fibrin and aMB2 might be efficacious in the treatment of arthritic disease as well as many other inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis,” Degen said.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful and debilitating disease involving chronic inflammation, tissue degeneration, loss of cartilage and bone and ultimately loss of joint mobility and function.
Although the disease’s precise cause is not fully known, activation of specific components in the body’s immune system seem to play a major role in its onset and early progression, according to researchers.
Fibrin deposits are a prominent feature of arthritic joints and the protein appears to be a link between systems that control inflammation and bleeding within joints.