Bone Abstracts

Background: Sarcopenic obesity is usually defined by the combination of sarcopenia and obesity but there is not a standard definition yet. The recommended method for the quantification of muscle mass is dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), based on assessment of total fat mass and appendicular lean mass. Low Body Mass Index (BMI) used to be considered as a risk factor for fragility fracture. However, recent evidences have demonstrated a correlation between BMI and vertebral...

Objectives: Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare, inherited metabolic disorder caused by loss-of-function mutations in the ALPL gene that encodes the tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase TNAP (ORPHA 436). Its clinical presentation is highly heterogeneous with a remarkably wide-ranging severity. HPP affects patients of all age. Therefor diagnosis is often difficult and delayed. To improve the understanding of HPP in children and in order to shorten the diagnostic time span in th...

Objectives: Impairment of bone mass accrual and alterations of bone metabolism is a common finding in HIV-infected youths. In particular, previous studies demonstrated higher bone formation and bone resorption rates in HIV-infected children and adolescents. Wnt ligands promote bone formation by stimulating osteoblast differentiation and their survival. Recent studies demonstrated that sclerostin (Scl) and dickkopf factor 1 (DKK-1), Wnt antagonists, are important negative regul...

Objectives: To examine the bone mineral density (BMD) response to i.v. pamidronate (Group 1) vs i.v. zoledronic acid (Group 2) in non-ambulatory children and young adults with severe cerebral palsy or other neuromuscular disorders.Methods: A total of 50 non-ambulatory children and young adults, (mean age 11.3 years, range 2.1–32) with low BMD and/or history of fractures were retrospectively studied. Thirty-nine patients (30 spastic quadriplegic cere...

Biographical DetailsDr Madhusmita Misra is a full Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a Pediatric Endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She directs the fellowship training program in Pediatric Endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and has a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr M Misra’...

Osteoporosis in premenopausal is dominated by secondary causes, among which anorexia nervosa, the female athletic triad, celiac disease, and glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIO) constitute the most frequent conditions. Stress fractures of the lower extremities and low energy fractures of the ribs, are also frequent. Various genetic causes like osteogenesis imperfecta tarda are probably underdiagnosed and various inflammatory conditions also play a role. A rare, but often ...

Bone remodeling is the key process in bone structural reorganization, and its alterations lead to changes in bone mechanical strength. Since osteons reflect different bone remodeling patterns, we hypothesize that the femoral cortex of females with miscellaneous age, disease, and treatment conditions will display distinct osteonal morphology and osteocyte lacunar numbers along with different mechanical properties.The specimens used in this study were coll...

The clinical orthopaedic problem of delayed healing or non-union after complex fractures affects 5–10% of all patients, especially within the elderly population. Recently several in vitro studies showed that CD133+ cells bare angiogenic capacities and contribute to a better outcome concerning ischemia induced angiogenesis in vivo. A local administration of these specific cells to the fracture gap appears feasible as a new treatment option for biological ...

Childhood obesity is a serious global public health problem, reaching 40% of children in developed countries. While the connection between under-nutrition and growth retardation is well documented, the opposite connection between over-nutrition and bone development was barely studied. Obese children grow faster in height than normal-weighed children, and prospective studies demonstrated an over-presentation of obese children amongst fracture cases. Yet, the cellular and molecu...

Osteosarcoma, the main malignant primary bone tumor, affects a ‘young’ population composed of children and young adults. Current treatment consists of tumor resection associated with chemotherapy. Unfortunately in many cases, a lack of response to anti-tumor drugs is observed, leading to development of metastases and to the patient’s death. Because TGF-β promotes metastases from many solid epithelial tumors, we investigated the effect of inhibitory Smad7 ov...