Part of a horse’s athletic success depends on his joint health, and veterinarians continually study up on how best to maintain joints and manage injury. Surgeon Larry Bramlage, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, in Lexington, Ky., describes joints’ lubrication mechanisms and how joints respond to injury in the joint therapies section of the 2011 AAEP.

David Frisbie, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, ACVSMR, of Colorado State University, describes using mesenchymal stem cells to treat joint disease, addressing sources, processing methods, and efficacy. Clinical sources of MSCs include bone marrow and adipose tissue, but Frisbie said bone marrow is the superior source. Allogenic stem cells are also an option, but they are expensive and little is known about how they differentiate.