Bone Abstracts

Introduction: We recently showed that patients with primary Sjögren Syndrome (pSS) have significantly higher bone mineral density (BMD) in the lumbar spine and femoral neck compared with healthy controls. The majority of those patients (69%) were using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which may have favourable effects on BMD.Aim: To evaluate whether HCQ modulates human bone cells in vitro.Methods: Osteoblasts were differenti...

Background: Elevated plasma homocysteine levels are a risk factor for osteoporotic fractures. Supplementation with vitamin B12/folic acid lowers homocysteine levels. This study aimed to determine whether vitamin B12/folic acid supplementation reduces osteoporotic fracture incidence in hyperhomocysteinemic elderly.Methods: B-PROOF is a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial including 2 919 participants aged ≧65 years with elevated homocyste...

Osteoporosis is a common skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass leading to increased bone fragility and fracture susceptibility. Little is currently known about what specific factors stimulate osteoblast differentiation from human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Therefore, the aim for this project is to determine novel factors and mechanisms involved in human bone production which can be targeted to treat osteoporosis, using gene expression profiling and bioinformati...

Osteoporosis is a common skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass leading to increased bone fragility and fracture susceptibility. Little is currently known about what specific factors stimulate osteoblast differentiation from human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Therefore, the aim for this project is to determine novel factors and mechanisms involved in human bone production which can be targeted to treat osteoporosis, using gene expression profiling and bioinformati...

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...

Objectives: impairment of bone mineral density (BMD) is a complication of childhood cancer treatment. A comprehensive review on the occurrence of impaired BMD in childhood cancer survivors (CCS), and which disease subgroups are at risk has never been pursued so far. The aim of this study was to summarize all knowledge on BMD status and associated determinants in long-term adult childhood cancer survivors (CCS) based on available literature.Methods: an el...

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...

Objectives: To elucidate the incidence and risk factors of skeletal toxicity in children with ALL treated with the dexamethasone-based DCOG-ALL9 protocol.Methods: Prospectively, the cumulative incidence of fractures was assessed in 672 patients and compared between different subgroups using the log-rank test. Serial measurements of bone mineral density of the lumbar spine (BMDLS) were performed in 399 ALL patients using dual energy X-ray absor...