Virginia Kraus, Pathology

This is a molecular biology laboratory devoted to the study of the pathogenesis of arthritis. We view the joint as an organ system with three major elements, cartilage, bone and synovium, whose interactions must be elucidated in order to understand the inciting events in arthritis and to develop novel therapies and objective disease markers for use a diagnostic tools. To this end we investigate:

• the expression and regulation of cartilage matrix degrading enzymes, known as metalloproteinases, in vivo and in vitro
• the metabolism of cartilage extracellular matrix components and their quantification as disease markers
• the molecular pathogenesis of osteoarthritis including genes involved in hereditary forms of osteoarthritis.

The model systems we use include a guinea pig model of spontaneously developing osteoarthritis, a canine model of sugically induced arthritis, and human studies of families with a predisposition to osteoarthritis. These studies involve techniques of reverse transcription and semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, ELISA assays and cartilage biochemistry.