Bone Abstracts

Wnt factors bind to heparan sulfate chains of syndecans that hence control their distribution in the cell microenvironment and also contribute to the internalization and recycling of the Wnt receptors. Syndecans are therefore likely important Wnt regulators within the bone marrow. Here, we investigated the interactions between Syndecan-2 and Wnt signaling in normal bone cells. We analyzed the effects of 2.3 kb Col1A1 promoter-driven Syndecan-2 overexpression in osteoblasts. Sy...

Bone is the primary site of metastasis for breast cancer, which leads mainly to osteolytic lesions, Cancer cells can expand into the bone for their ability to ‘dialogue’ with resident cells, interfering with the physiological processes of bone turnover. In this study, a large-scale analysis comparing gene expression of biopsies of bone and visceral metastases from human breast cancer patients showed that the receptor (G protein-coupled) activity modifying protein-2 (...

Histomorphometric analysis is an essential technique to measure bone formation and resorption parameters. Here we present three novel open source image analysis packages that allow the rapid semi-automated analysis of histomorphometric bone resorption, osteoid, and calcein double labelling parameters.Mice were injected with calcein 5 and 2 days before killing. Tibia and vertebrae were fixed in formalin, embedded in methylmethacrylate and the blocks secti...

Objective: In many traumatic or pathological conditions, bone turnover is low and osteoclast activity is reduced or abolished. We developed innovative hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds carrying RANKL expressing cells with the aim of supporting bone resorption when this is defective. Membrane-bound (m)RANKL is cleaved into soluble (s)RANKL by MMP14. We hypothesized that the osteoclastogenic potential of RANKL-producing cells could be improved if they were seeded on scaffolds engine...

Objectives: To determine any relationship of serum concentrations of osteoprotegerin (OPG), sRANKL and sRANKL:OPG ratio with idiopathic hypercalciuria (IH) in children, as there is some evidence of increased bone resorption in these patients.Methods: In a prospective study, twenty four children of median age 6.5 years (range 2.3–16.4) with IH (five had urolithiasis and two nephrocalcinosis) were examined at the time of diagnosis and after 3 months o...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the trabecular bone score (TBS), bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition in men of various ages.Materials and methods: 300 men aged 40–87 years (mean age – 60.5±0.6 years; mean height – 1.61±0.003 m; mean weight – 84.1±0.9 kg) were examined. The patients were divided into the following age-dependent groups: 40–49 years (n=52), 50–59 years (n=90), ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the trabecular bone score (TBS), bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition in women of various ages.Materials and methods: 494 women aged 41–89 years (mean age, 63.6±0.4 years; mean height, 1.61±0.003 m; and mean weight, 74.0±0.6 kg) were examined. The patients were divided into the following age-dependent groups: 40–49 years (n=35), 50–59 years (n=130), 60–6...

Autosomal dominant osteopetrosis type 2 (ADO2) is a rare genetic disease due to reduced osteoclast function. Clinical manifestations are variable, and in some cases the symptoms, including frequent fractures, osteomyelitis, hematologic and neural failures, are already evident during childhood and worsen with age. In 70% of cases, ADO2 is caused by heterozygous dominant negative mutations of the CLCN7 gene, encoding the Cl−/H+ antiporter type 7. We hypothesized that silen...

Infantile spinal muscular atrophy X-linked 2 (SMAX2) is a rare form of spinal muscular atrophy manifesting in severe hypotonia, areflexia, arthrogryposis, facial weakness and cryptorchidism, as frequently accompanied by bone fractures.We present a boy patient with SMAX2 who presented typical symptoms from birth, as preceded by reduced fetal movements in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. In the first days of life the patient was found to have s...

Objective: To study any possible relations of vitamin D status and metabolic syndrome (MetS) components in children, since there is evidence for extraskeletal functions of vitamin D, and its deficiency may contribute to the pathogenesis of several major diseases. In addition to explore any possible role of birth weight (BW).Methods: Clinically healthy children aged 3–9 years (n=152) were included in the study. Forty-six were born large for ...