In the 100 years since the first moose swam into Lake Superior and set up shop on an island, they have mostly minded their moosely business, munching balsam fir and trying to evade hungry gray wolves. But now, the moose of Isle Royale have something to say -- well, their bones do. Many of the moose, it turns out, have arthritis.

Moose living on a remote Lake Superior island near the U.S.-Canada border have unlocked a mystery about how the bones of aging mammals including humans can come to suffer the ravages of arthritis.

Knee pain is usually caused by arthritis. There are three common types of arthritis: rheumatoid, traumatic, and osteoarthritis. When you injure your knee, it can cause traumatic arthritis. This is a condition that develops over time as damaged ligaments and or bones cause further damage to the knee structure and break down the articular cartilage. Rheumatoid arthritis causes the synovial membrane to produce too much fluid. The fluid overfills the joint space, thickens, and becomes inflamed c

Arthritis is a generic term for inflammation of the joint (place where two or more movable bones meet). The joint, spaces between the bones is composed of fluid sacs, in addition to cartilage (gelatinous substance that caps the end of the bones). Both act as shock absorbers. Ligaments hold bones together. Tendons attach muscles to ligaments. Muscles contract and expand via nerve, electrical stimulation, which in turn pulls and relaxes the tendons, ligaments, moving the bones. There are three t

The new bone was created from bone marrow stem cells Scientists have created part of the jaw joint in the lab using human adult stem cells. They say it is the first time a complex, anatomically-sized bone has been accurately created in this way. It is hoped the technique could be used not only to treat disorders of the specific joint, but more widely to correct problems with other bones too. The Columbia University study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Th