Bone Abstracts

Introduction: To determine bone microarchitecture analysis (BMA) standard curves for wrist and ankle in men and women.Design: EpiReumaPt is an ongoing national, population-based, cross-sectional, epidemiologic study developed by the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology to estimate the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in Portugal. Trained interviewers have been randomly applying a standardized questionnaire to 10 000 subjects at their houses. Selected cases...

Introduction: Osteoporosis is frequently associated with renal disease, namely the bone metabolism disturbances caused by secondary hyperparathyroidism of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The increased risk of fragility fractures is well demonstrated in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). There is recent evidence that bone pathological changes start early in the course of CKD. Our aim is to evaluate whether chronic renal disease, before ESRD, is associated with bone fra...

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are a class of drugs particularly used in gastric disorders. They promote a decrease on gastric acid secretion by inhibiting the H+/K+ ATPases. Osteoclasts are cells specialized in bone resorption by H+ translocation to the bone surface. Thus, PPIs might be regarded as potential tools to modulate osteoclast resorption activity, particularly in conditions that are associated with a hyperactivation of osteoclasts, li...

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been widely used as a biocompatible ceramic in many areas of medicine, mainly for contact with bone tissue, due to its resemblance to mineral bone. Owing to the nanofeatures of bone tissue, new nano-HA based materials are among the most promising challenges in bioactive ceramics. Recently, it was observed that fluoroquinolones have the ability to interfere with osteoclastogenesis, in standard polystyrene cell culture plates. The aim of this work is to a...

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative, slowly developing joint disease. Although clinical indications of OA can vary among different definitions there is a general agreement that the disease is associated with cartilage narrowing. However, there is no general consensus about the threshold below which the joint space width (JSW)/joint space area (JSA) can be certain indicators for the state of OA. Therefore this study evaluates these limits to reveal quantitative inf...

Objectives: By prospectively evaluating a cohort of girls we aim to identify population patterns linking adipokines and bone turnover during early and late adolescence and to assess the associations of those patterns with forearm bone mineral density (BMD).Methods: The study was developed within a population-based cohort of urban adolescents born in 1990 and assembled in public and private schools of Porto, Portugal (EPITeen). We analysed prospective dat...

Marine cyanobacteria have been recognized as an important source of bioactive compounds. The cytotoxicity on cancer cell lines has been extensively explored and several cyanobacteria metabolites are already described as potential anticancer compounds or are considered useful templates for the design of new anticancer drugs. The majority of compounds have been isolated from filamentous or colonial cyanobacteria that growth in high densities along shores. In contrast, picoplankt...

Bone is constantly being molded and shaped by the action of osteoclasts and osteoblasts. A proper equilibrium between both cell types metabolic activities is required to ensure an adequate skeletal tissue structure, and it involves resorption of old bone and formation of new bone tissue. It is reported that treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) can elicit alterations in skeletal structure, in particular in bone mineral density. Nevertheless, the knowledge regarding the eff...

Despite its rigid structure, bone is a dynamic tissue that is in constant remodeling. This process requires the action of the bone-resorbing osteoclasts and the bone-synthesing osteoblasts. One of the adverse effects attributed to some antihypertensive agents is the ability to alter normal bone metabolism. However, their effective actions on human bone cells remain to be clarified. In this work, the effects of five calcium channel blockers, a class of antihypertensive drugs (A...

Skeletogenesis is an intricate process controlled by numerous transcriptional factors, hormones and signalling pathways. Recently, microRNAs emerged as important players in skeletogenesis but, only few were identified and most of their targets remain unknown. Previous works showed that miR-199a-2/214 cluster is essential for skeletal development and that miR-214 inhibits bone formation in mammals. However, data regarding its skeletal role in other vertebrates is scarce and its...