The Medical College of Wisconsin Arthritis Institute continues to be active in arthritis research. Interaction and collaboration with other researchers is one of the keys to expanding our research field. In the last several years, we have collaborated with researchers outside MCW as well as within MCW. The Institute concept attempts to forge links with investigators in departments such as Orthopaedics, Microbiology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Skeletal Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
At the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting, institute researchers presented their work. Dr. Larry Ryan, Institute Director, gave a talk on calcium containing crystals at the Crystal Study Group. Dr. Ann Rosenthal and her collaborators presented two papers discussing the activation of an enzyme called transglutaminase, which is related to calcium crystal deposition in cartilage. Dr. Ikko Masuda and her colleagues presented a paper in which cartilage deposits of calcium pyrophosphate crystals were found to contain the enzyme NTPPH, suggesting that this enzyme is also important in crystal deposition. Dr. Jun Hirose, Dr. Masuda, and Dr. Ryan presented a paper showing that CILP, a subtype of NTPPH, is the actual enzyme involved in crystal deposition.
Research funds continue to be desperately in need and difficult to obtain. The National Institutes of Health has always been our main source of support, but increased appropriations have been far short of the need. Funds from industry, especially drug companies are also at a low for laboratory research. This is why we need donations from private sources, such as our patients. We cannot maintain our momentum now that federal funding has been reduced to a trickle. The resources needed to operate our laboratories have become a factor. We really need all the help we can get.