Obesity as an aetiological factor in the development of osteoarthrosis

A quantitative survey was carried out on the subcutaneous and abdominal adipose tissue of two inbred strains of mouse; STR/ORT is a strain in which the knee joints of the males have a very high incidence of osteoarthrosis, whereas the incidence of the disease in the females is much lower; the CBA/ORT mice represent a normal laboratory strain which rarely suffers from osteoarthrosis. In terms of the weight of readily removable subcutaneous and abdominal adipose tissue, the male STR/ORT mice were slightly leaner than the male CBA/ORT mice, the female STR/ORT mice were obese when compared with their CBA/ORT counterparts. Thus, in these mice, there was no positive correlation between obesity and osteoarthrosis. This evidence confirms previous mouse studies and is contrary to the commonly held view that in humans obesity predisposes to osteoarthrosis.