Bone Abstracts

Histomorphometric analysis is an essential technique to measure bone formation and resorption parameters. Here we present three novel open source image analysis packages that allow the rapid semi-automated analysis of histomorphometric bone resorption, osteoid, and calcein double labelling parameters.Mice were injected with calcein 5 and 2 days before killing. Tibia and vertebrae were fixed in formalin, embedded in methylmethacrylate and the blocks secti...

Osteoporosis is the commonest worldwide age-related bone disease. It is clinically symptomless until the first fracture happens. Circulating microRNAs can be used as novel biomarkers to assess health status and progression of complex diseases. A recent review highlighted the involvement of microRNAs in the control of bone formation and remodeling. Most of these studies have been done on animal models, but few on human blood samples.This research aims to ...

We have previously shown that female neuronal nitric oxide synthase knockout (nNOS KO) mice have increased trabecular bone volume. However, this study was performed in mice at 10 weeks of age only. To investigate whether the high bone volume is maintained during ageing, we compared 3-month- and 12-month-old wild type (WT) and nNOS KO mice using μCT. The tibias from 8 WT and 8 nNOS KO mice at each age were dissected, fixed for 24 h in buffered formalin, stored in 70% ethan...

Biographical DetailsWim Van HulWim Van Hul is full professor of Molecular biology and genetics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He obtained a bachelor degree in Chemistry from the University of Louvain (Belgium) and a master degree in biochemistry. He obtained his PhD on molecular genetics in 1993 from the University of Antwerp. He started his...

Biographical DetailsM van den Heuvel-Eibrink is Associate Professor of Pediatric Oncology at the Erasmus MC/Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She began her medical career with an MD from the University of Utrecht and following a number of years of clinical work in the pediatric oncology field completed her PhD in Rotterdam in 2001. Since 2009 Dr M van den Heuvel...

Biographical DetailsHans van LeeuwenHans (J.P.T.M.) van Leeuwen studied biology in Amsterdam, and did his PhD study on the mechanism of action of PTH in Leiden, The Netherlands. Currently he is professor at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, leading the research program on Calcium and Bone Metabolism. Main research ...

FDA guidelines recommend the sheep as large animal model for osteoporosis. Studies of osteoporosis induction use dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) to evaluate bone status. Experimentally, the T-score is calculated based on reference bone mineral density (BMD) values of animals before treatment (0 M). Whereas clinically the reference BMD represents values of an independent group of patients around 30 years old. The study hypothesize that the use of additional ind...

About two decades ago, evidence was generated that canonical Wnt signaling plays an important role in bone accrual mainly based on the identification of mutations in genes from the Wnt pathway resulting in extremely low or high bone mass. Since then, it became clear that genetic variation in a lot of genes from this pathway have an influence on bone mass both in a number of skeletal dysplasias as well as in the general population. This is the case for a number of wnt ligands (...

Background: Trisomy 9p is a rare abnormality caused by duplication of the short arm of chromosome 9. Translocation t(9;11) is a rarer variant. Both anomalies are compatible with long survival. Clinical manifestations are very variable, and include short height, mental retardation, hypertelorism, strabismus, foot/hand anomalies, delayed bone maturation. Low bone mineral density (BMD) or fragility fractures have never been reported.Presenting prob...

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in men and metastatic spread to bone is detected in up to 80% of patients with advanced disease at autopsy. PCa can progress from treatable androgen-dependent stage to castration-resistant stage with distant metastases for which novel therapeutic targets and strategies are urgently needed. Here we identify the cell surface/secreted oncoprotein Cripto as a potential target for the diagnosis and treatment of metastatic prostate cancer...