Bone Abstracts

Vertebral fractures are one of the most common and disabling manifestation in osteoporosis. The relationship between bone mass and muscle strength has already been shown in the literature, but only a few studies argues the relationship between BMD and erector spinae muscles. Simple biomechanical considerations suggest that the loss of trunk muscle mass may contribute in vertebral fractures. In the literature, the Soerensen and isokinetic tests are often reported for t...

Between 5000 and 8000 rare diseases affect the daily lives of around 30 million people in the EU. Many of those affected by a rare or complex conditions frequently undergo to late diagnosis and inadequate care and do not have access to high quality treatment. European reference networks (ERNs) for rare diseases should serve as research and knowledge centres, updating and contributing to the latest scientific findings, treating patients from other Member States and ensuring the...

Biographical DetailsM Kassim JavaidAfter completing medical training at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, I specialized in adult rheumatology at the Wessex Deanery. During that time, I completed a PhD examining the maternal determinants of intra-uterine bone growth as part of an ARC Clinical Fellowship at the University of Southampton fo...

Autosomal dominant osteopetrosis type 2 (ADO2) is a rare genetic disease due to reduced osteoclast function. Clinical manifestations are variable, and in some cases the symptoms, including frequent fractures, osteomyelitis, hematologic and neural failures, are already evident during childhood and worsen with age. In 70% of cases, ADO2 is caused by heterozygous dominant negative mutations of the CLCN7 gene, encoding the Cl−/H+ antiporter type 7. We hypothesized that silen...

Introduction: Vertebroplasty (VP) and ballon kyphoplasty (BKP) are used in the treatment of the vertebral compression fractures (VCF), that usually result in a typical wedged deformation. It is still under debate which technique is the best, in terms of efficacy, costs, and safety, mainly about the risk of a adjacent new fractures. The aim of this study is to evaluate the biomechanical outcome of vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty by a computational comparative analysis with finit...

Breast cancer (BrCa) patients with metastases restricted to bone (BO) show a longer overall survival compared to BrCa patients developing bone and visceral metastases (BV). To unveil the molecular mechanisms that segregate these two BrCa patient groups, we performed microarray analyses on bone metastasis samples from BO and BV patients, finding in the latter a set of up-regulated genes involved in oxygen metabolism. We focused on Hemoglobin B (HBB) and evaluated its expression...

The coupling of bone formation to bone resorption during treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis with antiresorbers might be related to changes in Wnt/β-catenin signalling. We compared the effects of two bisphosphonate treatments on two Wnt inhibitors sclerostin (SOST) and Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK1). The study population included 72 women with postmenopausal osteoporosis participating simultaneously in two multicenter, placebo controlled trials. The patients were ...

Objectives: To assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of single and multiple doses of TA-46 administered subcutaneously to healthy volunteers.Methods: This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in a total of 72 subjects. Cohorts of 8 subjects were randomised to receive either TA-46 or placebo in a 3:1 ratio in single ascending dose (SAD) and multiple ascending dose (MAD) cohorts. SAD doses were 0.3, 1, 3, 10 a...

The renal stones found in the mummies of Pandolfo III Malatesta, Lord of Fano (1370–1427) and an anonymous nobleman from Popoli (XVIII century) were investigated using different techniques. Both specimens were examined with binocular stereomicroscopy (BSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), also with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Multiple tiny fragments from surface and inner portions were submitted to X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Subsequently, the cal...

Ancient Egyptians were well known for the art of embalming, performed in the belief that preservation of the body was essential for survival in the afterlife. During the mummification process, internal organs were removed and some of them (lungs, stomach, liver, and intestines) washed, dehydrated with natron, perfumed, and stored in so-called canopic jars, buried with the mummy. Each jar had established contents and its own protective deity. To date, a limited number of studie...