Bone Abstracts

Background: Vitamin D (Vit-D) plays a role in calcium metabolism during pregnancy, and studies have found widespread deficiency in this period. Its significance is still not fully understood, although low Vit-D levels have been associated with increased risk for preeclampsia, bacterial vaginosis, neonatal sepsis and early respiratory infections in the infant. Supplementation to the pregnant mother remains a matter of debate; thus, it is important to better understand the cause...

We recently observed an increased risk for vertebral fractures (VF) in a randomized controlled trial comparing the analgesic effect of vertebroplasty (VP) vs conservative treatment (CT) in symptomatic VF. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the risk factors related to the development of VF after VP in these patients.Methods and results: We evaluated risk factors including age, gender, bone mineral density, the number, type and severity of verteb...

Introduction: Although systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has traditionally been considered a disease of women, men may also be afected. Male osteoporosis is increasingly recognised. Several studies have reported that mean bone mineral density is significantly reduced in SLE women patients and most of them have low levels of vitamin D. The aim of our study is to analize this situation in men.Objectives: Determine 25-hydroxyvitamin-D (25OHD) serum concent...

In a recent randomized controlled trial comparing vertebroplasty (VP) vs conservative treatment (CT) in patients with symptomatic vertebral fractures (VF) we observed the development of severe chronic back pain (CBP) in nearly one quarter of patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors related to the development of CBP in these subjects.Methods: We evaluated risk factors including: visual analog scale (VAS) at baseline and during the ...

MicroRNAs are important regulators of gene expression with documented role in bone metabolism and osteoporosis. Moreover, the use of miRNAs constitutes potential therapeutic targets. Our aim was to identify miRNAs differentially expressed in fractured compared to healthy bone. Additionally, we performed a miRNA profiling of primary osteoblasts to assess the origin of the differentially expressed miRNAs. Total RNA was extracted from fresh femoral neck trabecular bone from women...

In a meta-analysis by Estrada et al. (2012), 56 loci were found associated with BMD, 14 of which were also associated with osteoporotic fracture. Several of these genes belong to the Wnt signaling pathway, including two inhibitors: DKK1 and SOST.To better understand the role of these genes in BMD determination and fracture susceptibility, we aimed to explore their allelic architecture by resequencing all coding exons and flanking region...

Introduction: Gaucher disease (GD), the most prevalent glycolipid storage disease, is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder that is caused by an inherited deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme, glycocerebrosidase. This defect leads to reduce enzyme activity, resulting in the accumulation of glucosylceramide in cells of the monocyte-macrophages linage, known as Gaucher cells. Common presenting features include anemia, thrombocytopenia, hepatosplenomegaly and bone abnormalities...

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The aims of this study were to establish the prevalence of the high bone mass (HBM) phenotype in a cohort of Spanish postmenapausal women (BARCOS); to determine whether any of the HBM cases carry LRP5 or DKK1 mutations; to test the hypothesis of an inverse correlation between the number of common variant risk alleles and HBM; and to characterize the expression of osteoblast-specific and Wnt pathway genes in primary osteoblast RNA samples from two HBM cases.</...

Over the past decade, many GWAs and meta-analyses were performed to identify genes and regions involved in bone metabolism and in the osteoporotic phenotypes. Nevertheless, the majority of these GWAS results were not tested at any functional level. This study aims to find and study functional regions in the RANK and RANKL genes that encode well-established proteins in the bone remodeling equilibrium. SNPs, chosen for their location in an evolutionary conserve...