Nearly one in every two people in the U.S. may develop knee
osteoarthritis by age 85, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. By 2030, an estimated 67 million
Americans over the age of 18 are projected to have physician-
diagnosed arthritis. Researchers at the University of California
in San Francisco (UCSF) previously had found an association
between physical activity and cartilage degeneration. But that
study focused on one point in time. For the new study, the UCSF
researchers looked at changes in knee cartilage among a group of
middle-aged adults over a four-year period. They used magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI)-based T2 relaxation times to track the
evolution of early degenerative cartilage changes in the knee.
"T2 relaxation times generated from MR images allow for analysis
of the biochemical and molecular composition of cartilage," said
Wilson Lin, B.S., research fellow and medical student at UCSF.
"There is increased water mobility in damaged cartilage, and
increased water mobilit