Osteoarthritis linkage scan: More loci for the geneticists to investigate

Abstract

The findings by Greig et al provide us with new loci to investigate and also stimulate our thoughts relating to the overall nature of genetic susceptibility of osteoarthritis. Clearly, osteoarthritis is a complex disease both clinically and genetically. It is also clear that genetic studies are providing us with new insights into the fundamental causes of this disease. The recent advances in human molecular genetics exemplified by the sequencing of the human genome project, the delineation of the human HapMap and the development of high-throughput genotyping platforms now provide us with an opportunity to comprehensively search the genome for osteoarthritis risk alleles. The Greig et al study represents another step towards this goal.