Bone Abstracts

STRUCTURE was a phase 3, open-label study evaluating the effect of romosozumab or TPTD for 12 months in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis transitioning from bisphosphonate therapy (NCT01796301). This study enrolled women with postmenopausal osteoporosis who had taken an oral bisphosphonate for ≥3 years prior to screening and alendronate in the year prior to screening; had a BMD T-score ≤−2.5 at the total hip (TH), lumbar spine (LS), or femoral neck (FN);...

Objectives: Osteoporosis is a frequent cause of morbidity in boys with glucocorticoid (GC)-treated Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). We sought to determine the frequency and characteristics of the two most debilitating types of fractures, vertebral and long bone (VF and LBF), in pediatric DMD.Methods: This was a prospective, bi-centre, single-visit observational study in boys 4 to 17 years of age with genetically-confirmed DMD. The bone health assessmen...

Ablation of osteosarcoma cells by sublethal hypothermia before radiation may increase sarcoma tissue sensitivity by inducing growth arrest. Normal cells that are not lethally damaged by hypothermia and radiation can undergo DNA repair thus promoting cell survival. Nevertheless, understanding of the response of normal bone forming osteoblast cells towards hypothermia is necessary before administering on osteosarcoma cells. In this study we evaluated the response of short-term m...

The effects of prolactin on bone metabolism have been the subjects of several studies. It is believed that prolactin acts directly influencing the synthesis of bone matrix by stimulating the osteoblastic activity, since receptors for this hormone have been identified in osteoblasts and human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, no study on the effects of prolactin on the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs was found in the literature. The objective of this study was to verif...

Biographical DetailsAssociate Professor Craig Munns is a Senior Staff Specialist in Bone and Mineral Medicine and Endocrinology at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Conjoint Associate Professor in the Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney, Australia. Following the completion of his Paediatric and Endocrinology training at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane...

Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) modulates activity of proteins by removing two aminoterminal amino acids. DPP4 inhibitors are currently being used to improve glucose tolerance in type 2 diabetes patients by increasing the half-life of DPP4 substrates. It has been shown that these substrates do not only increase pancreatic insulin secretion, but also influence bone cell activity. The potential therapeutic effect of DPP4 inhibition on bone metabolism is thus worth being investigat...

Introduction: Vascularised fibula autograft combined with a massive bone allograft (Capanna 2007) is used in skeletal reconstructions in children. If vascularisation is successful a clear remodelling of the reconstruction can be observed. This study aims to define a protocol to characterise bone’s structural evolution in skeletal reconstructions through a computer-aided analysis, and attempts a biomechanical interpretation of the observed phenomena through a multiscale mo...

The microenvironment of osteolytic metastases includes carcinoma cells derived from the primary lesion as well as bone-forming and bone-resorbing cells, namely osteoblasts (OB) and osteoclasts (OC). At this site, both the high glycolysis of cancer cells, and the bone resorption process result in a very acidic milieu. This, in turn, induces the surrounding stroma and OB to secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors that promote tumorigenesis and cancer-associated ost...

Over the years, it has been demonstrated that the ability to maintain body core temperature in older adult’s declines with age. Temperature is a vital physical factor for cell growth and a downshift in core body temperature (<37 °C) might have a direct affect on maintaining bone density or repair fractures. Disruption in any of the cellular processes involved in bone remodelling leads to a net loss of bone mineral density and bone loss. Therefore our study looked...

It is unclear as to whether western dwelling South Asian (SA) postmenopausal women have a different fracture risk to that of the native Caucasian (C) population. Moreover, the WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) has not been used previously to compare predicted risk of fractures in western dwelling South Asian women with same-age Caucasian women. This analysis used data from n=35 SA [mean (S.D.) age=59 (6) years] and n=136 C [mean (...