LAHORE - Humaira Majeed Khan - Osteoarthritis is an abnormality of the joints. Most of the people who gained weight suffer from joint pain, tenderness, stiffness, locking and, sometimes, an effusin.
Joint is a hard capsule that connects two bones. The bones bend without any difficulty due to the natural flexibility of joints. Flexibility, smoothness and frictionless movement of joints is due to a thin, elastic tissue called ‘cartilage’. It plays a pivotal role of cushion between two bones that slide over each other during movement. It has a property to distribute and support the forces generated during joint loading.
Overweight, ageing, joint injury, stresses on the joints in certain jobs and sports activity may result in wear and tear of cartilage, ultimately causing physical disability. The patients of this disease are isolated from society.
According to research, 15 per cent population of the US suffers from osteoarthritis. In China, it affects about 10 per cent of the population. In India and Bangladesh, it is reported to be 5.78 and 10.20 per cent, respectively.
According to the UK National Health Service, 8.5 million people suffer from this disease; while according to US Arthritis Foundation, 27 million Americans are affected every year. It is also predicted that 70 million Americans will be at risk in 2030 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009).
According to the latest research, Osteoarthritis was found in 34 per cent of Pakistan’s population.
Orthopaedics suggests medication and non medicated modalities for management of pain and smooth mobility of joints of patients. This includes use of analgesics, intra-articular injections of lubricants to joints, joint replacement and other surgical techniques such as arthodesis and arthotomy. Yet the successful rate for complete treatment of disease is not hopeful, because at early stage of life the treatment successful rate is more profound than at age above 40 years.
The main reason of sustainability of disease is because of slow recovery rate of damaged cartilage. In fact, cartilage plays role of cushion in between two bones that slide over each other during movement. As the joint comes under pressure because of flexion of bones, the cartilage distributes that load equally because of its resilience property. Thus, articular cartilage has a property to distribute and support the forces generated during joint loading.
In a recent study, efficacy of isolated chondroitin sulphate from poultry source was also evaluated and compared with standard chondroitin sulphate from fish source (shark) alone and in combination with glucosamine sulphate in osteoarthritis rats.
Research was started with the collection of raw material (chicken keel cartilages) from retail broiler shops of Lahore and then processed for isolation of chondroitin sulphate from these poultry by-products. Highly sensitive molecular techniques were used to identify, purify and quantify chondroitin sulphate.
The percentage yield was found to be 70.77. Osteoarthritis was developed experimentally and successfully treated with chondroitin sulphate in 60 days. From this study, it was concluded that extracted chondroitin sulphate from poultry has comparable efficacy with that of shark source alone and in combination with glucosamine sulphate. It is recommended that industry should take initiative to isolate and market this research product.
The writer is research scholar, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore.