Bone Abstracts

The healing of bone fractures is a tightly regulated process where released growth factors and cytokines interplay within an inflammatory environment in order to reestablish the functional bone. Recent studies have suggested that endothelial cells may dedifferentiate into mesenchymal multipotent cells via a mechanism called endothelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (EndoMT). Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) plays a critical role inducing EndoMT. Subsequent differenti...

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...

A number of cancers develop in the skeleton or will metastasize to bone, including multiple myeloma and solid tumours such as breast and prostate cancer. Once established in the skeleton, cancer cells have the ability to modify the environment and cause devastating bone disease. The last decade has seen considerable progress in defining the critical cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible and also identified new roles for the cells of bone in the pathogenesis of metastas...

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Our skeleton needs to carry the body weight and to resist mechanical impacts. This capability or, conversely, bone fragility are controlled by the amount of bone mass, the shape and internal architecture of the bones, as well as by the material of which they are built. Bone material consists of a complex multi-scale arrangement of mineralized collagen fibrils containing also water, proteoglycans as well as some non-collagenous proteins. This organization is by no means constan...

Biographical DetailsPeter Fratzl is director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, and honorary professor at Humboldt University Berlin and Potsdam University. He holds an engineering degree from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France, and a doctorate in Physics from the University of Vienna, Austria. His scientific interests include the relation betwee...

Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) is a powerful approach to visualize live cells and tissues, including bone, in three dimensions and over time. To enable preclinical longitudinal monitoring of bone by intravital MPM we developed an animal window model of bone using existing tissue engineering strategies. Electrospun polycaprolactone scaffolds and human mesenchymal stem cells after osteoblastic differentiation, in vitro, were implanted into the mouse skin in the presence o...

Biographical DetailsEleonora Dondossola is a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow in the Intravital Imaging Lab, Koch Center for Applied Research in Genitourinary Cancers, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. She received her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from S. Raffaele Vita-Salute University, Milan, Italy, in 2010. Her current research is focused on metastasis...

Hip fractures in children are extremely rare and account for less than 1% of all fractures in children. Most orthopaedic surgeons will treat only a few such fractures in a lifetime. They are associated with high complication rate because the vascular and osseous anatomy of the child’s proximal femur is vulnerable to injury. Knowledge of the blood supply to the immature proximal femoral epiphysis is necessary to adequately manage these injuries. Hip pain in children is a d...

According various guidelines the basic recommendation in prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) is adequate intake of calcium (1000– 1300 mg/day) and vitamin D (800–1000 IU/day).Aim: To determine the intake dose of calcium and also the vitamin D saturation in women treated for PMO.Patients and methods: 465 women with PMO, divided into two groups: patients with newly diagnosed osteoporosis (n</em...