PROVO — Arthritis-induced pain and joint stiffness may someday be problems of the past, thanks to new research by a Brigham Young University molecular biologist.

Laura Bridgewater and a team of researchers published a paper in the journal Matrix Biology about their studies on collagen, one element in the body's self-produced bone and joint padding.

The team wants to know why this element breaks down faster in some people to cause osteoarthritis, a painful, currently incurable problem.

The research is focused on "enhancer elements," parts of genes that appear in every cell of the body. In cartilage genes, these enhancers boost the production of collagen, which wards off osteoarthritis. But those enhancers seem to work better for some people, and Bridgewater is searching for the reason.

"We're just understanding how they do it," Bridgewater said. "Every cell has the same genes, but you get all the different things. You grow an eye with the same set of genes (you use to) grow a liver — different genes get turned on and off."

So right now she is focused on understanding how enhancer elements get turned on and off in cartilage genes. Over the next 10 to 15 years, Bridgewater said she hopes this research could lead to gene therapy and effective arthritis treatment.

"Once we understand it, then there's the possibility to help people," she said.

This early step, however, is considered significant.

"Dr. Laura Bridgewater has made important contributions by identifying cartilage-specific collagen genes controlled by (a master switch)," said Benoit de Crombrugghe, chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Future treatments could include shots containing genes with healthy, functioning enhancer elements.

These shots would help boost cells with less healthy cartilage genes where the enhancers haven't been working well.

However, the trick will be to make sure that the enhancers turn "on" only in the cartilage gene. After all, no one wants cartilage or collagen being produced where it's not needed, such as in the liver or in blood cells.

Right now, the main focus is finding which types of proteins make the enhancers active, but the research direction after that isn't solidified.

"It depends what we discover," Bridgewater said. "As we're learning what some of these new proteins are, it opens all sorts of new doors for research and interesting questions."

And in Utah, almost 22 percent of the population will be waiting for the answers to those questions. Almost 500,000 residents — one of every four Utahns — deal with arthritis or chronic joint pain.