Bone Abstracts

Background: Cherubism is a rare autosomal dominant bone disease characterized by bilateral painless enlargement of the jaws, that typically first appear at the age of 2–7 years. In this condition the affected bone is replaced with fibrous tissue, giving the patient a cherubic appearance.Until now only 300 cases have been reported in the literature.Case report: A caucasian 4-year-old male child came to our Pediatric Clinic comp...

Background: Cabozantinib (CBZ) is a receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor with activity against MET, VEGFR2, FLT3, c-KIT, and RET. Pre-clinical studies in models of prostate cancer bone metastasis demonstrated that CBZ treatment induced both a suppression of tumour growth and an alteration in bone remodelling, suggesting that both tumour and bone microenvironment represented potential CBZ targets. This is the first study exploring the potential direct activity of CBZ in bone usin...

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gaseous molecule produced endogenously in mammalian cells. H2S was recently found to play important roles in the regulation of inflammation, redox homeostasis and cell lifespan. Moreover, H2S was shown to maintain mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) function and stimulate osteogenic differentiation of MSC. However, it is unclear whether H2S plays any role in the bone loss induced by estrogen deficiency.<p clas...

Autosomal Recessive Osteopetrosis (ARO) presents early in life with extreme sclerosis of the skeleton, reduction of bone marrow spaces, hepatosplenomegaly, cranial nerves compression and severe growth failure. ARO is often lethal and at present the only therapy is HSCT, which should be performed as soon as possible in order to obtain a major benefit. ARO is genetically heterogeneous and delays in clinical diagnosis sometimes occur, due to its rareness and to the presence of co...

Bone metastasis (BM) is a dismal complication of cancer, occurring frequently in patients with advanced breast carcinoma. During metastatic progression, carcinoma cells harness osteoclast (OC) activity, promoting osteolysis. To adapt to hypoxia and/or to support proliferation, carcinoma cells adopt primarily glycolysis for energy production, therefore releasing lactic acid in the microenvironment through monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4). Stressed by tumor cells, osteoblast...

Introduction: Aim of this study was to evaluate connections between Blood Pressure values and hypovitaminosis D states in elderly women with severe osteoporosis.Design and methods: The subjects were all >80: 63 women (mean age 84+3) affected by severe osteoporosis. In 26 women we discovered a new spinal fracture after treatment. Thirty-seven women had multiple spinal fractures (>3). Among subjects with severe osteoporosis we selected 37 ...

Introduction: Recently reported high incidences of hip fractures emphasize the need of more effective methods for osteoporosis diagnosis, currently performed essentially by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) examinations of the proximal femur. However, high costs and radiation-related issues do not allow DXA employment for population mass screenings. Aim of this study is to carry out a preliminary clinical validation of a new ultrasound (US)-based method to perform femoral...

Introduction: Currently, the only available method to reliably predict osteoporotic fractures is represented by bone mineral density (BMD) measurements on proximal femur or spine, which require the use of X-rays. Aim of this study is to illustrate working principles and feasibility of a new ultrasound (US) method for bone densitometry and osteoporosis diagnosis applicable on both proximal femur and spine.Methods: A new fully automatic algorithm was devel...

Fibrous dysplasia (FD) is a benign skeletal disease caused by activating mutations of Gsα. These mutations lead to formation of abnormal and mechanically unsound bone and fibrotic tissue. Clinical sequelae include deformity, fracture, and pain. Studies in bisphosphonates have shown improvement in bone pain and inconsistent effects on FD mineralization; however interpretation has been limited by a lack of controlled trials.Objecti...

Barrier membranes have been extensively used in dentistry to prevent soft tissue down-growth into the bone defects and to promote alveolar ridge augmentation. Previous studies of our group showed that the Poly(vinylidene-trifluoroethylene)/barium titanate composite (PVDF) enhances both the in vitro osteoblastic differentiation and the in vivo bone repair compared with a commercially available polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane. As bone formation may be regulated ...