News — cartilage

As it relates to cartilage, research has shown that in injured horses and horses with osteoarthritis, there are higher levels of C2C. With OA or injury, cartilage is compromised, in large part due to increased inflammation. Of course, this means that there will be higher levels of degradation products.

There’s a lot of potential for biomarkers to tell us in greater detail what is going on in the joint and the body, sometimes more so than an x-ray or ultrasound.

Years of research indicates joint-related problems are the main reason for performance loss in horses. It is estimated that 60% of equine lameness is caused by degenerative joint disease, which includes osteoarthritis (OA)--the imbalance between cartilage synthesis and degradation.