Bone Abstracts

The musculoskeletal system experiences severe mechanical strain, with repetitive or extreme strains causing significant trauma; the result being an increase in mechanobiological studies evaluating mechanical strain on musculoskeletal cells. Currently, most stretching studies utilise fibronectin-coated cultures, as these enhance cell attachment. However, recent studies suggest that fibronectin increases cell turnover and DNA damage and affects cell differentiation. Furthermore,...

Introduction: Current Canadian clinical practice guidelines recommend the FRAX or Canadian Association of Radiologists and Osteoporosis Canada (CAROC) fracture risk assessment tools to report 10-year fracture risk in an individual. CAROC considers sex, age, BMD and previous fracture as risk factors. It is unknown whether one reporting system is more effective in helping general practitioners (GPs) identify individuals who should be recommended for pharmacological treatment. We...

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis have often been reported to coexist in older people. However, the literature is conflicting regarding size and indeed direction of the association. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess associations between the Framingham general cardiovascular risk score and bone characteristics in a cohort of older adults.Methods: We studied 374 men and 379 women, born 1931–1939, who participated...

Background: In patients with gout, urate deposition has been observed both adjacent to and within tendons, suggesting that monosodium urate monohydrate (MSU) crystals are likely to be in direct contact with tenocytes, the stromal cells of tendons. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of MSU crystals on tenocyte viability and function.Methods: Cultures of primary rat tenocytes were prepared from Wistar rat tails. Primary human tenocytes were...

Objective: Total body less head (TBLH) and spine are the recommended DXA sites for bone health assessment in children and adolescents. However, inter-machine differences will affect use and interpretation of results in clinical care and research applications. We examined BMC and areal-BMD (aBMD) at 4 skeletal sites among healthy children to identify the magnitude of inter-machine differences in Z-scores.Methods: BMDCS evaluated healthy participa...

Objectives: The ketogenic diet (KD) is a medically supervised, high fat, low carbohydrate and restricted protein diet which has been used successfully in patients with refractory epilepsy. Only one published report has explored its effect on the skeleton. We postulated that KD impairs bone mass accrual and examined skeletal health parameters in this patient group.Methods: Patients commenced on the KD from 2002–2009 were enrolled in a prospective, lo...

Objective: Although metabolic syndrome is common in gout patients, recent reports that bone mineral density may actually be reduced (and falls common) in this group have led researchers to hypothesise that osteoporotic fracture may be more common in subjects with gout than in healthy controls. We tested this hypothesis in a national Danish registry.Material and Methods: We identified subjects as new users of allopurinol, a proxy for gout, for the years 1...

Sports specific training may have different impact on bone outcomes, and adolescence is a key period to optimize bone health. The aim was to examine hip differences on bone outcomes between osteogenic (football) and non-osteogenic (swimming and cycling) sports in adolescent males.One hundred twenty one males (13.1±0.1 years) volunteered to partake in this study that received ethics approval from the UK National Research Ethics Service. Participants ...

Objectives: Maternal vitamin D status in pregnancy is associated with neonatal bone mass, and altered DNA methylation. Mice exposed to early life vitamin D deficiency have lower bone mass and reduced bone accrual in response to mechanical loading. Using tibias from these mice we assessed DNA methylation of promoters of genetic loci important for bone growth and development.Methods: C57/BL6 mice received a vitamin D replete or deplete diet for 6 weeks per...

Objectives: Low birthweight has been shown to be associated with poorer musculoskeletal health in later life in a variety of epidemiological studies. We investigated relationships between birthweight, and grip strength or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of muscle volume in UK Biobank.Methods: UK Biobank is a large prospective cohort of men and women aged 40–69 years, including a detailed baseline assessment in which birthweight was collect...