Keep high cholesterol diet at bay to prevent osteoarthritis

Beware! Your high on cholesterol food can lead to the development of osteoarthritis, researchers including one of Indian origin have warned. 

The new research using animal models suggests that high cholesterol levels trigger mitochondrial oxidative stress on cartilage cells, causing them to die, and ultimately leading to osteoarthritis, a type of joint disease. Researchers tested the potential therapeutic role of mitochondria targeting antioxidants in high-cholesterol-induced osteoarthritis and provided proof-of-concept for the use of mitochondrial targeting antioxidants to treat osteoarthritis.

"Our team has already begun working alongside dietitians to try to educate the public about healthy eating and how to keep cholesterol levels at a manageable level that will not damage joints," said Indira Prasadam, a researcher atQueensland University of Technology in Australia. Prasadam and colleagues used two different animal modelsto mimic human hypercholesterolemia. The first was a mouse model that had an altered gene called ApoE that made the animals hypercholesteremic.

The other was a rat model, and the animals were fed ahigh-cholesterol diet, causing diet-inducedhypercholesterolemia. Both models were fed a high-cholesterol diet or controlnormal diet, after which they underwent a surgery that mimicsknee injuries in people and was designed to bring onosteoarthritis. Both the mice and the rats that were subjected to surgeryand fed with high-cholesterol diets showed more severeosteoarthritis development than seen in the normal diet group.

However, when both the mice and the rats are were exposedto the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin andmitochondrion-targeted antioxidants, the development ofosteoarthritis was markedly decreased in relation to theuntreated groups. The research appears in the FASEB Journal.