Bone Abstracts

Destruction of the articular cartilage is the major feature of Osteoarthritis (OA). Ageing is the primary risk factor, but how ageing results in OA is still an enigma. In OA, articular chondrocytes degrade their own matrix, while in healthy articular cartilage they preserve it.Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) is a central regulator of chondrocyte proliferation, differentiation and extracellular matrix production. Deregulation of TGFβ si...

Objective: To study the trends in prescription of different anti-osteoporotic drugs (AOD) in the UK population aged 50 years or above from 1990 till 2012.Methods: Retrospective observational study using the CPRD data link representative for the total UK population. The incidence of prescription of a specific AOD was calculated by dividing the number of prescriptions by the total person-years (py) of follow-up.Results: AOD prescript...

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate and compare the preferences of patients and health care professionals for osteoporotic drug treatment.Materials and methods: A discrete choice experiment was conducted among patients and health care professionals (general physicians, rheumatologists, and geriatricians) in Belgium. Participants were asked to choose between two hypothetical unlabelled drug treatments (and an opt-out option) that vary in several attri...

TGFβ is a family of ubiquitous growth factors that play a prominent role in bone biology. In normal bone remodeling, TGFβ1 released from the bone matrix by osteoclasts, attracts mesenchymal stem cells to sites of resorption thereby ensuring that new bone restores eroded older bone. TGFβ also promotes osteoblast proliferation but later restricts osteoblast maturation by repressing the expression of genes involved in bone formation. Recent evidence has demonstrate...

Biographical DetailsSusan Schiavi has spent her career as a research scientist within the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. She received her PhD from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. As a Senior Scientific Director at Genzyme and Sanofi, her primary role has been the development of scientific strategy for the ...

Cancer cell growth is dependent on the microenvironmental support. Prostate and mammary cancer (PCa and MCa) cells preferentially metastasize to bone, where they induce either an osteoblastic or osteolytic response. These opposite stromal responses suggest that different types of cancers adopt distinct strategies to hijack the bone marrow/bone stroma for their growth support. However, the molecular cues underlying these divergent responses are largely elusive.<p class="abs...

Objectives: Osteonecrosis (ON) and decline of bone mineral density (BMD) are serious side effects during and after treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It is unknown whether ON and low BMD co-occur in the same patients, and whether these two osteogenic side-effects can mutually influence each other’s development.Methods: BMD and the incidence of symptomatic ON were prospectively assessed in a national cohort of 466 patients wit...

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in men and metastatic spread to bone is detected in up to 80% of patients with advanced disease at autopsy. PCa can progress from treatable androgen-dependent stage to castration-resistant stage with distant metastases for which novel therapeutic targets and strategies are urgently needed. Here we identify the cell surface/secreted oncoprotein Cripto as a potential target for the diagnosis and treatment of metastatic prostate cancer...

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...

Biomechanical strength testing of bones, considered a key component in bone quality assessment, is a critical end-point in the evaluation of safety and efficacy of test compounds in preclinical studies. Bones are usually preserved frozen and tested within a few months following harvesting. They can also be stored for longer periods and only tested when additional information is required. The objective of this study was to evaluate if differences in biomechanics data between di...