Bone Abstracts

Background: Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare condition characterised by congenital malformation of the great toes and progressive heterotopic endochondral ossification. The disease progresses with episodic flare-ups, resulting in disabling cumulative immobility. The discovery of the ACVR1 gene as the cause of FOP has allowed identification of therapeutic targets. Palovarotene, a retinoic acid receptor gamma agonist, is in phase 2 clinical trials.<...

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGBP) is one of the leading surgical treatments for morbid obesity and leads to significant long-term weight loss, diabetes remission, decreased cardiovascular events, and reduced mortality. RYGBP is, however, also implicated in increased fracture risk, mainly due to higher bone turnover rates and malabsorption. In the present study we used Raman microspectroscopic analysis to determine bone quality (an important determinant of bone strength)...

Release of RNA into the extracellular space is a newly identified means of intercellular communication operating in many organisms. Such extracellular RNAs can be released via 50–1000 nm vesicles Almost all cell types produce such extracellular vesicles (EV) and the secretion and proteins/lipids per RNA content is regulated by the producing cell. Besides release of vesicle-enclosed genetic material, cells can also release RNA in association with macromolecular protein com...

Introduction: Due to the ‘greying’ of (industrialized) societies the incidence of osteoporosis and fragility fractures is expected to be increasing. Our aim was to investigate in an elderly population if the incidence of non-vertebral fractures (overall and site specific) has changed after a longer follow-up, and its relation with osteoporosis or osteopenia assessed by bone mineral density (BMD) at baseline.Methods: Incident non-vertebral fract...

Background: It is known that one of the features of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a generalized bone loss, therefore important tasks for the physician are timely evaluating of the risk of fractures and approving osteoporosis treatment in patients with RA.Objectives: Through the Programme of the Russian Association of Rheumatology for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment osteoporosis (OP) in patients with RA we evaluated the 10 year probability of major...

Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is common, and is linked to increased risk of adverse outcomes including preterm birth, preeclampsia, infection, gestational diabetes and asthma. Vitamin D possesses well-recognized immunomodulatory functions, and programming of the immune system during foetal development can influence asthma-related risk factors and health outcomes in later life. We hypothesized that influencing vitamin D status during pregnancy would impact the immune profil...

Objective: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is primarily characterized by bone fragility but is also associated with lower muscle mass and function. As muscle mass and bone mass are closely linked, an intervention that increases muscle mass should also increase bone mass. Here we investigated the effect of a novel activin receptor IIB ligand trap, ACE-2494 (Acceleron Pharma), on skeletal muscle mass and bone properties in a mouse model of severe dominant OI, the Col1a1<su...

The co-chaperone protein, Bcl-2-associated athanogene 1 (BAG-1) is expressed ubiquitously in bone including cells of the osteoblast-lineage and, plays an important role in cell proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation by regulating signalling and transcription. The study aims to elucidate the function of BAG-1 in osteoblast development by examining differences in osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) from Bag-1+/−</sup...

Molecules secreted by the osteoclast or ‘clastokynes’ are essential to stimulate bone formation by osteoblasts. Treatments with bisphosphates and Denosumab target osteoclast survival and differentiation. This suppresses bone turnover and is suspected to increase the risk of atypical fractures in the long term. A solution to overcome this is to develop strategies that target selectively the activity of osteoclasts without affecting their survival or differentiation. S...

Background: The presence of vascular calcification (VC) is a predictive factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases, especially in the obese population. VC has also been inversely associated with bone mineral density (BMD) but the results have been inconsistent. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between VC, obesity and volumetric BMD (vBMD).Methods: We studied 148 healthy men and women, aged 55–75 years, divided i...