Bone Abstracts

Proteoglycans is a component of extracellular matrix, forming a mesh around structural proteins including collagen and elastin, and providing elasticity to tissue structure. Proteoglycans is formed by the attachment of glycosaminoglycans to a core protein, a process that requires three enzymes: galactosyltransferase-1, galactosyltransferase-2 and glucoronosyltransferase-1, encoded by B4GALT7, B3GALT6 and B3GAT3 respectively. B3GALT6 mutation...

Objective: Over the last decade, there has been increasing scientific interest in vitamin D, and it is now advised that all pregnant women and infants should receive vitamin D supplementation. Despite of this, it is recognized that knowledge of vitamin D in the general public is limited. The internet is now an important source of health care information and analysis of internet search activity rates can provide information on disease epidemiology, health related behaviors and ...

Objective: Public Health England recommends that children in the United Kingdom (UK) aged over 1 year should take a vitamin D supplement containing 400 IU/day. Commercially available children’s multivitamin and vitamin D supplements were surveyed to determine the vitamin D content.Methods: Multivitamins and vitamin D supplements marketed at children <12 years and sold by nine UK supermarkets and health supplement retailers were surveyed. The vit...

Objectives: An increased fracture risk is reported in children requiring recurrent courses of glucocorticoids. Reduced bone mineral density (BMD), particularly in the trabecular compartment, has also been demonstrated in a number of childhood diseases treated with glucocorticoids. The differential contribution of glucocorticoids and underlying inflammatory disease to bone demineralisation is poorly understood. Childhood nephrotic syndrome (NS) often follows a relapsing-remitti...

Fractures are common in childhood, but multiple fractures during growth could indicate osteoporosis. Children with frequent fractures might benefit from further investigations for osteoporosis and as such, obtaining an accurate fracture history is important. The 2013 International Society for Clinical Densitometry Paediatric Osteoporosis Position Statement defined a clinically significant fracture history as two long bone fractures before age 10 years or three long bo...

Background: Preclinical model studies suggest early life vitamin D depletion reduces bone’s response to mechanical loading. The MAVIDOS trial (randomised placebo controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy) reported winter-born infants of mothers receiving vitamin D supplementation had higher bone mass; the earlier Southampton Princess Ann Cohort study linked pregnancy blood vitamin D levels to later bone mass and size. We showed previously that bone respon...

Objectives: Children who fracture have lower bone mineral density (BMD) measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) than children who do not sustain fractures, but there is little data on bone microarchitecture in relation to childhood fracture. We assessed tibia microarchitecture using high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) in children with recent fracture and those without a history of fracture.Methods: Children ag...

Objectives: Weight bearing physical activity (PA) is thought to be beneficial to bone mineral accrual in childhood, but the influence of PA and sedentary time on bone microarchitecture is less well described. We examined the relationships between self-reported PA and volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and bone microarchitecture at the distal tibia, assessed using high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT).Methods: Healthy c...

Objectives: Serum 25(OH)-vitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration is known to influence muscle function in postnatal life. Maternal 25(OH)D status during pregnancy has been implicated in the fetal programming of bone and fat mass, but little is known about its role in determining offspring muscle development. We investigated the associations between maternal serum 25(OH)D concentration in pregnancy and offspring muscle mass and strength at 4 years.Materials and...

Although it has been suggested that overweight and obese children have an increased risk of fracture, recent studies in post-menopausal women have shown that the relationship between obesity and fracture risk varies by fracture site. Thus, obesity is protective against wrist fractures but confers an increased risk of humeral fractures. There are no data to suggest whether this observation is also present in children. We therefore assessed whether adiposity and overweight/obesi...