Daily News: Aging  New research links body clocks to
osteoarthritis    By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at
Biotech Business Week -- The team in the Faculty of Life
Sciences has established for the first time that cartilage cells
have a functioning body clock that switches on and off genes
controlling tissue function. The rhythm of the cartilage clock
perhaps goes some way to explain why osteoarthritis sufferers
find the symptoms of the disease worse at certain times of the
day (see also Osteoarthritis).  When Dr Qing-Jun Meng and his
team studied cartilage tissue in older mice they found that the
tissue's body clock was 40% weaker than in younger mice. This
suggested that clock deterioration could contribute to an
increased risk of developing osteoarthritis in later life. The
researchers then looked at cartilage cells affected by damage
similar to osteoarthritis and found that components of the body
clock are altered during the early stages of the disease.
Following these discoveries the researchers test