Bone Abstracts

New treatment agents against osteoporosis may not only lead to an improved trabecular structure, but can probably also strengthen the cortex. To assess this treatment effects by means of QCT, one has to deal with significant partial volume effects observing this very thin, but compact structure. A new method for cortical thickness estimation has been developed using an analytical deconvolution approach. After estimating the point-spread-function (PSF) of a scanner/kernel combi...

Dietary Ca insufficiency is a common finding, independently of socio-economic status. A low Ca intake (CaI) increases bone turnover leading to bone loss. This effect becomes more important during estrogen withdrawing. We previously found that a mixture of galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) enhances Ca and P absorption (Abs), being a suitable tool to optimize its bioavailability and consequently bone health. The present study evaluated the effect of ...

Familial expansile osteolysis (FEO) is characterised by focal areas of increased bone turnover driven by bone-resorbing osteoclasts. The syndrome is caused by a heterozygous tandem insertion duplication mutation within the signal peptide region of TNFRSF11a (encoding receptor activator of NFκB; RANK). Our recent research has demonstrated that heterotrimeric receptor formation may hold the key to the disease phenotype. We have shown previously that, whilst homozygous overe...

Early-onset Paget’s disease of bone (ePDB), familial expansile osteolysis (FEO) and expansile skeletal hyperphosphatasia (ESH) are related syndromes caused by heterozygous tandem insertion duplication mutations within the signal peptide region of TNFRSF11a (encoding receptor activator of NFκB; RANK). Given that patients are always heterozygous for these mutations we have generated thirteen cell lines to investigate the molecular consequences of these mutations in...

The interaction of Receptor Activator of NFkB ligand (RANKL) with its cognate receptor RANK is crucial for osteoclast formation. We studied eight point mutations within human RANK associated with rare forms of osteopetrosis to gain mechanistic insights into the regulation of RANK signalling.We investigated the role of the oligomerisation domain within the cytoplasmic region of RANK studying two mutations (W434X and G280X) identified in rare cases of oste...

Background: Nutrition is a cornerstone of child health. Appropriate nutrient intake contributes to bone health, relevant to conditions of bone fragility. Nutrient intake in chronic conditions can be adversely affected by altered dietary behaviours such as mealtime behaviour and food choice. Dietary behaviour and nutrient intake have not been explored in children with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), the commonest cause of children’s bone fragility.Aim:...

The pathogenesis of skeletal fragility in diabetes mellitus is poorly defined and efficient therapies are limited. Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus display low bone mass and delayed bone defect healing. We tested whether intermittent treatment with human parathyroid hormone 1–84 (PTH) increases bone mass and bone defect regeneration in diabetic rats.A subcritical gap defect was created at the femur of 10 weeks old diabe...

Diabetes mellitus results in increased skeletal fragility through reduced bone mineral density and altered collagen structure. How these changes affect bone mechanics at the tissue level remains largely unclear. Anti-osteoporosis medications improve bone mass, but whether they can fully restore tissue strength in diabetic bone, where collagen quality is compromised, has not been fully elucidated. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of type 2 diabetes mellit...

Bone mineral density (BMD) as measured by quantitative computed tomography (QCT) is biased by the variable marrow composition since marrow fat reduces the apparent BMD. We developed a marrow densitometry (MD) method that identifies subvolumes in the vertebrae that consist of bone marrow only (bone voids) and determines their average mineral equivalent density values. The method was developed for use with in vivo high resolution QCT (HR-QCT). HR-QCT still has limited s...

Objectives: To evaluate progression of BMD and bone mineral content (BMC) during pubertal development and Influence of body composition and vitamin D on BMD and BMC in children and adolescents.Material and method: This cross sectional study was part of an ongoing health survey of Delhi school children which recruited 1905 apparently healthy school children (835 boys; 1070 girls) in the age group of 6–17 years. After brief history, anthropometry and ...