About This Project

The purpose of the study is to discover how running affects both healthy knee joints and injured knee joints (which are more likely to get knee osteoarthritis). This will be done by comparing knee synovial fluid (a fluid that lubricates the joint) samples from volunteers with an ACL injury and volunteers without one, before and after 30 minutes of running. We hope to better understand the influence of running on knee joint vitality in healthy and previously injured knees.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Conventional wisdom says running is hard on knees, deteriorating cartilage and causing arthritis. Inflammation is a predecessor to arthritis so, when we conducted a pilot study that showed running actually decreases knee joint inflammation, we discovered that running may be beneficial for healthy knees.

The effects of running may be different for individuals who have sustained a major knee injury. Although the reasoning is unclear, tearing your anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) puts you at a much higher risk of developing knee arthritis. We hypothesize that joint loading, due to running, may affect an injured knee differently than it does a healthy knee, possibly contributing towards arthritis progression.

More information is needed to understand the effects of running on the knee joint.

What is the significance of this project?

Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in older adults in the United States, affecting 52 million in the US alone. By comparing the knee joint inflammation of individuals with both healthy and previously injured knees, before and after a 30-minute run, we will better understand the relationship between running and knee arthritis. This will lead to more information and the possible development of interventions (including running) that may slow or prevent the progression of knee arthritis.

Equally important, we will also be able to help debunk the myth the running is bad for healthy knees by providing a mechanism that shows running decreases knee joint inflammation, which is a precursor to knee cartilage breakdown.

What are the goals of the project?

32 runners (16 with healthy knees and 16 who have previously torn their ACL), will participate in two experimental sessions, Exercise and Control. Samples joint synovial fluid will be collected at the beginning of each session in order to quantify inflammation levels (representative of cartilage degeneration) within the knee joint. During the Exercise Session, participants will run for 30 minutes. During the Control Session, participants will sit for 30 minutes. A second and third joint sample will be collected 15 minutes and 1 hour after the 30-minute running period in order to quantify changes of inflammation due to running.

We will begin as soon as we have funding. We plan to publish our findings in impactful peer-reviewed journals.