Bone Abstracts

Increasing bone formation is an effective approach to prevent osteoporotic fractures. Although the intermittent administration of PTH is an established osteoanabolic therapy and an anti-Sclerostin antibody (Scle-AB) is currently being tested in phase 3 clinical trials, a great need exists for additional bone anabolic agents. Thus, in the context of a bi-national consortium we aim to uncover novel epigenomic networks controlling bone formation to identify new epigenomic approac...

Signaling pathways crucial in bone development, including Wnt, are also upregulated in breast cancer cells to promote tumor growth in the skeleton, a process known as osteomimicry. Thus, we hypothesized that bone metastatic tumor cells also aberrantly express osteogenic miRNAs to support osteomimetic properties. We have previously shown that miR-218 is highly expressed in osteoblasts and promotes osteogenic differentiation. Interestingly, expression analysis revealed a signifi...

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Analysis of osteocyte function often uses promoter elements of osteocyte-specific genes i.e. SOST or Dentin-matrix-protein 1 (Dmp1) to overexpress genes or the Cre-recombinase for conditional deletion studies. However, evidence suggests that these promoters may not be osteocyte-specific, which would be critical for subsequent data interpretation. To investigate the selectivity of supposedly osteocyte-specific in vivo models, we crossed the 8kb-Dmp1-Cre mice (i) with A...

During aging bone resorption often increases while bone formation decreases, thereby reducing bone mass and bone mineral density (BMD) and leading to osteoporosis. Evidence suggests that extrinsic factors may influence bone remodeling. While poorly understood, these mechanisms may function by inducing epigenomic programs that diminish the bone forming capacity of osteoblasts. This study is part of a bi-national consortium aimed at uncovering epigenomic networks controlling the...