We sometimes worry about wearing away our teeth, but don’t think much of what lies beneath them. Pictured is cartilage of a rat’s temporomandibular joint (TMJ – part of the jaw – seen down a microscope. Although this cartilage is healthy, excess stress can cause it to wear away, along with the underlying bone. This is currently very difficult to treat, but scientists have recently tested a potential cure. They injected rats whose jaws were under different levels of teeth-grinding type strain with a drug called Salubrinal. This compound inhibits endoplasmic reticulum stress, a cellular process which can lead to additional cartilage damage once the jaw is under strain. Salubrinal caused the damaged cartilage to recover its thickness, and reduced symptoms in bone, such as pathological changes and a high immune system response. It could be an interesting potential treatment in the future, including for painful degenerative bone disease like arthritis.
BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences the website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biomedicine. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.
BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.