But the role of pyrophosphate in osteoarthritis, a much more common ailment, is unclear, says rheumatologist Michael Doherty of the City Hospital in Nottingham, United Kingdom. (sciencemag.org)
He points out that some osteoarthritis sufferers have too much instead of too little pyrophosphate in their knee fluid, suggesting a different disease mechanism. (sciencemag.org)
When the Stanford team measured pyrophosphate levels in cultured cells derived from ank and normal mice, they found that the chemical accumulated in cells from the ank mice but decreased in the culture medium. (sciencemag.org)