Purdue University Veterinary Medical
VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2
Hard Tissue Research at Purdue
MARCH 1988
Practical Applications of Bone and Cartilage Investigation Appear Promising
Why would anyone want to study bone
or cartilage? The meat packing industry
doesn't have a way to convert bone into
dollars; therefore, those in animal industry
see little or no use for this organ, as long as
the animal can walk and gain weight efficiently. Case in point-look at the small
number of research dollars dedicated to
study lameness by USDA in pigs or cattle.
Yet, the animal scientist who has a prize
boar crippled with osteochondrosis, or a
client who has a pet limping due to hip
dysplasia in its adolescence or osteoarthritis in its old age, is acutely aware of the pain
and suffering that musculoskeletal disease
can elicit. However, bone and cartilage are
notoriously difficult tissue to work with,
and most laboratories do not process these
tissues routinely. There are some "bone
heads," Dr. Dave Van Sickle being one,
who, with other investigators in SVM and
other departments of Purdue, have been
studying bone and cartilage reactions to
natural disease and experimental manipulations for the past twenty-five years.
Dr. Van Sickle's hard tissue research
began at the beginning. He, collaborating
with Drs. Martin Stob and Bill Foley of the
Histological section (J50 ym thick), the
result of the new technique of a cementless
tibial prosthesis seated in a proximal canine tibia.
Department of Animal Sciences, began by
collecting swine embryos and fetuses of
known ages from artifically inseminated
sows and studying the prenatal development of the swine femoral tibial joint.
While he was learning some basic biological principles about joints and their components, the work seemed too far removed
from veterinary medicine. Ununited an-
coneal process was becoming recognized
as a major problem of the canine elbow of
the growing dog-especially big dogs; yet
no one knew how the anconeal process developed normally. Writing a proposal to
the Morris Animal Foundation, Dr. Van
Sickle became a Fellow and received funding for two years-one year to finish the
normal study and another to study the
pathological process. Simultaneously,
along with Dr. Bob Lewis (MSU) and Dr.
Bill Shaw (PUR '66), he studied the pathogenesis of canine panosteitis and osteochondrosis of the canine shoulder. Dr.
Mike Herron (PUR'66), his first graduate
student and now professor of surgery at
Texas A&M, was concluding his research
on the healing of immature articular cartilage of the canine humeral head.
On selected weekends, Dr. Van Sickle
remained active as a veterinary officer in
the Air ForceReserve Medical Service. He
had finished a tour at the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC,
where he learned to process bone and
gained experience in reading slides of bone
pathology. Now, he was receiving shoulders from USAF sentry dogs to determine
their incidence of osteochondrosis. Instead, he uncovered a primary age-related
osteoarthritis of the canine shoulder. Dr.
Mike Harvey (PUR'71), a veterinary student, at the dme, worked out the sequence
The VAN Bone and Cartilage Research Group being briefed on a new undecalcified bone
technique by Ms. Sharon Evander (research assistant) on the left, as Dr. Van Sickle, Dr.
Harper (graduate student), and Ms. Susan Annis (technician and John Annis' daughter)
observe. Demonstrated equipment donated by DcPuy, Warsaw, IN.
in privately owned dogs.
During this time (1968-1975), his
gradutc students, Drs. Norm Wilsman
(PUR'65) and Steve Kincaid (PUR'69),
were accomplishing significant research
on the morphology of cartilage canals,
their relationship to the ossification of
secondary centers, heterogeneity of articular chondrocytes, and histochemical patterns of articular surfaces. Dr. Mike
Shively (PUR'70) completed his PhD research on the developing canine hip and
documented the extent the English Pointer
was affected with hip dysplasia.
Dr. Van Sickle and Dr. Ben Hillberry
(ME), along with their graduate students,
began a study to determine how the articular surface of the canine scapula glides
across that of the humeral head. This
research was funded by NIH, resulted in
several PhD theses, and correlated nicely
with the histochemical pattern of the articular cartilage of the humeral head,
which had been described earlier by Dr.
Kincaid. This research was expanded, and,
using the computer generated data, these
two research groups designed special exercises for the dogs, so that a non-wcight-
bearing area of the humeral head became
weight-bearing. These exercises caused a
modulation of the histochemistry of the
matrix of the articular cartilage, indicating
a better state of health. This was interpreted to mean that the resident chondrocytes were also modulated toward an im-
(continued on page 2)
Cats with FeLV
Can They Help Stamp out Aids?
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is rapidly becoming a
worldwide health threat. Initially confined
to a small subset of the world's population,
it now threatens people from all walks of
life. No effective treatment, prophylactic
medication, or vaccine is currenUy available to combat this problem.
There is a great need for multidisciplinary biomedical research teams to address
the AIDS problem in a scientific manner.
Such teams are rapidly forming at Purdue
University. Thanks to funding obtained
through the Showalter Trust of Indianapolis, a resource center for the study of AIDS-
like viruses (retroviruses) in animal models
is developing in Purdue's School of Veterinary Medicine. Under the direction of Drs.
G. Daniel Boon, Theodore Burnstein,
James R. Cook Jr., Dennis B. DeNicola,
Eleanor  C. XJlKkms>  and  Ra,Pn  c-
Richardson, the $55,000 grant, awarded in
the spring of 1987, will make the School of
Veterinary Medicine a major focal point for
collaborative research. As new ideas are
conceived and developed by investigators,
testing of their ideas in this center can occur
before anti-AIDS treatment is tested in
humans.
Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) and
another recendy discovered immunosuppressive retrovirus of cats, the T lym-
photrophic virus of cats (FTLV) appear to
be excellent virus models for the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which
causes AIDS in man. Both FeLV and HIV
require intimate contact for transmission,
are easily destroyed in the environment,
cause death in 80% to 90% of infected
hosts, cause immunosuppression in the
hosts, and demonstrate similar spectra of
intercurrent diseases. Different strains of
viruses have been identified for both the
human and feline diseases. Preliminary
indicadons are that FTLV may have even
greater similarities to HIV than FeLV but,
to date, it has only been isolated from a few
geographic regions of the United States.
Cats with FeLV infection are seen daily by
veterinarians in Central Indiana. Cats with
FTLV may exist, but tesung has not yet
revealed their presence. By establishing
the laboratory/clinical resource center at
Purdue, these retrovirus-infected cats can
serve as animal models for human AIDS. It
is likely that cats will benefit from the
research, and hopefully, a widespread disease of cats can be controlled.
A fully equipped central laboratory for
the study of animal retroviruses exists
under the direction of Dr. Burnstein. These
viruses are grown and tested in tissue culture. Well characterized strains of FeLV
are maintained in the animal modeling
facility. Diagnostic procedures are also
done in this laboratory. The diagnostic
procedures are essential for the identifica-
flipn of FTLV in Indiana cats. This labora
tory will also provide a resource for collaborative subcellular basic research.
As new antiviral therapies are identified
by research teams, they may be tested in
retrovirus-infected pet cats. Cat owners
frequently seek out the advice of Purdue's
School of Veterinary Medicine for care of
their FeLV-infected animals; however, no
effective treatment is currently available.
Many such cats are euthanized at the time
of diagnosis. Those cats can readily enter
investigative programs which can further
define the similarities and differences between human and cat retroviral infections.
Under the care of Drs. Hawkins, Cook, and
Richardson, those cats may enter clinical
trials testing antiviral agents. Researchers
from Purdue have already received a National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group
grant from the National Institutes of Health
to develop antiviral agents for AIDS.
Those newly developed drugs are scheduled for testing in cats in 1990. Other
studies may also be conducted to detect or
protect against retroviral infections.
Ralph C 4fe ydson