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What is Cartrophen and how does it work?

Cartrophen Vet (100mg/mL of pentosan polysulfate sodium or PPS) and the concentrated form Cartrophen Equine Forte (250mg/mL of PPS) is a treatment for osteoarthritis or arthritis (OA or also known as degenerative joint disease or DJD) and related musculoskeletal disorders, which provides pain relief by acting on the pathology within the joint that causes pain and lameness.

Cartrophen Vet is classified as a disease modifying osteoarthritis drug (DMOAD) and importantly, it protects and supports the recovery of joint cartilage that is damaged by the arthritic process by its many modes of action.

Cartrophen Vet will benefit acute through to chronic OA due to the progressive nature of this disease. Early intervention with Cartrophen Vet in acute injuries will maximise the restoration of normal connective tissue function.

With 60% of lameness in the horse related to OA (Caron and Genovese, 2003), Cartrophen Vet and DMOAD represent the rational approach to the medical treatment of OA.

 

How does Cartrophen Vet work?

The aims of treatment of joint disease and the associated lameness should be to stop or slow the progression of degeneration and provide symptomatic relief. Over time, variable medical and non-medical treatments have been applied with variable results. Furthermore, medical treatments for OA such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and corticosteroids have been palliative and have done little to address the underlying disease processes taking place within and around the joint. However, the advent of a disease modifying osteoarthritis drug (DMOAD) such as sodium pentosan polysulfate (Little and Ghosh 1996) shifted the focus of medical management of OA from palliation to disease/structure modification and indeed prophylaxis.

Cartrophen Vet has shown to exhibit the following modes of action:

  1. Stopping the destructive enzymes that break down cartilage (Rogachefsky et al., 1993), which is the body’s natural shock absorber
  2. Stimulate the body’s production of cartilage (Rogachefsky et al., 1993)
  3. Stimulate the body’s production of joint lubricant (Francis et al., 1993) to reduce the joint’s friction
  4. Clear the blockages in blood vessels (Ghosh and Cheras, 2001) to deliver nutrition to the joint and bone
  5. Stimulate the production of anti-oxidants that block damaging free radicals (Bowman et al.,1994)

Note in the arthritis cycle diagram below the multiple points where Cartrophen Vet has demonstrated activity to combat the arthritis disease.

REFERENCES

Bowman L, et al. (1994). Int. Soc. Free Radical Res., 7th Biennial Meeting 1994

Caron J and Genovese L. (2003) in Diagnostics and Management of Lameness in the Horse 2003;746-763.
Francis D, et al. (1993). Rheum. Int. 13: 61-64 and Hutadilok N, et al. (1988). Curr. Ther. Res. 4: 845-860;

Ghosh P and Cheras PA (2001). Best Pract. Res. Clin. Rheumatol. 15(5): 693-710

Little C and Ghosh P.(1996) In: McIlwraith CW and Trotter GW editors. Joint Disease in the Horse. WB Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1996: 281-292.

Rogachefsky RA, et al. (1993). Osteoarthritis Cart. 1: 105-114