NEWS

UNC researchers awarded $4 million to study factors affecting osteoarthritis

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- The National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has awarded a $4 million grant to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill medical scientists to establish a new center for multidisciplinary clinical research on arthritis at the schools of medicine and public health.

The initiative, funded for five years, will be part of the larger Thurston Arthritis Research Center.

"We will have people from numerous different disciplines working with us," said Dr. Joanne Jordan, associate professor of medicine and orthopaedics and principal investigator for the overall grant. ‘We are very fortunate because UNC has a strong tradition of cooperation among the faculty on research projects. There will be experts, for example, from rheumatology, nutrition, epidemiology, health behavior, biostatistics, nephrology, psychology, nursing, orthopaedics, family medicine and other areas."

A new biostatistics facility, or "core," will help researchers collect, manage and analyze their data, as well as offering education and outreach in research methods, said Jordan, also adjunct associate professor of epidemiology. Initially, scientists will focus on three different investigations.

The first, led by Jordan, will examine the role of heavy metals, particularly lead, mercury and selenium, in osteoarthritis patients involved in her continuing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health-funded Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project. That research is the first and largest study ever done of arthritis in U.S. black and white rural communities.

The new work will be the first to determine if exposure to such metals might be related in some way to osteoarthritis.

"From laboratory data, we know that lead and mercury can affect bones and cartilage, but whether ordinary exposures to these metals affect osteoarthritis has never been examined."

Dr. Robert F. Devellis, research professor of health behavior and health education, will investigate social supports, perceived control and psychological adjustment in patients with vasculitis and in their spouses, Jordan said.

"This is a very interesting project that is an outgrowth of Dr. Devellis’work on emotional intelligence and interactions among married couples with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis," Jordan said. "He now will bring his research methods to a study of the psychological and family impacts of vasculitis, which is a very different disease and one that has been under-studied. He also will look at some aspects of treatment and the side effects of treatment."

Vasculitis is an unpredictable, often painful and sometimes life-threatening inflammation of blood vessels that can damage those vessels and surrounding tissues such as the central nervous system, the lungs and the kidneys.

Dr. Leigh F. Callahan is research associate professor of orthopaedics, social medicine and medicine and adjunct associate professor of epidemiology. She will direct the third project, which will look at social determinants and quality of life in arthritis patients seen in community medical practices across North Carolina. Being done in collaboration with Dr. Philip D. Sloan, professor of family medicine, this study is an outreach to examine arthritis throughout the state and to investigate community factors that affect how arthritis patients fare over time.

Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, afflicts almost a million North Carolinians, more than 21 million people nationally and many adults over age 65, research shows.

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Note: Jordan can be reached at 966-0559, Devellis at 966-0557 and Callahan at 966-0564.

Contact: David Williamson, 962-8596