Mouse models of osteoarthritis provide new research tools.

The options for pharmaceutical intervention of osteoarthritis are limited. There is therefore a crucial need for animal models of osteoarthritis that can be used as research tools for improving our understanding of the disease and for discovering and testing new treatments. Recently, a new mouse model of osteoarthritis was described in which the mice are unable to produce a bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor specifically in joints. A comparison of this model to other models with different etiologies is presented. The findings suggest that all of the models could be linked molecularly.