Bone Abstracts

Denosumab subcutaneous administration every 6 months reduced the incidence of new fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis by 68% at the spine and 40% at the hip over 36 months compared with placebo in the FREEDOM study (Cummings et al., NEJM, 2009:361:756). This efficacy was supported by differential improvements from baseline in vertebral and femoral strength at 36 months (18.2 and 8.6%, respectively) estimated by an established voxel-based finit...

Background: Hyperphosphatemic familial tumoral calcinosis (HFTC)/hyperostosis-hyperphosphatemia syndrome (HHS) is an autosomal recessive disorder due to deficiency of or resistance to intact fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23). This leads to hyperphosphatemia, increased renal reabsorption of phosphorus (TRP), and elevated or inappropriately normal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25D). Affected individuals may develop ectopic calcifications and/or diaphyseal hyperostosis. Mutations ...

Objectives: The ketogenic diet (KD) is a medically supervised, high fat, low carbohydrate and restricted protein diet which has been used successfully in patients with refractory epilepsy. Only one published report has explored its effect on the skeleton. We postulated that KD impairs bone mass accrual and examined skeletal health parameters in this patient group.Methods: Patients commenced on the KD from 2002–2009 were enrolled in a prospective, lo...

Biographical DetailsDr P Dimitri studied Medicine at the University of St Andrew’s in Scotland and the University of Manchester where he received a medal in pathology and a distinction in Paediatrics. In 2010 he was awarded a PhD in Medicine and the Michael Blacow Award from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health for his work on the relationship of fat and bone in children...

A major limitation in the development of cellular therapies using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) is cell survival post-transplantation. In this study, we challenged the current paradigm of hMSC survival, which assigned a pivotal role to oxygen, by testing the hypothesis that exogenous glucose may be key to hMSC survival. We demonstrated that hMSCs could endure sustained near-anoxia conditions only in the presence of glucose. In this in vitro cell model, the prot...

Introduction: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is characterized by low bone mass, skeletal fragility and, frequently, short stature. We previously showed in oim/oim mice that sclerostin inhibition increased bone mass, mineral content and strength. Here, we compared the body length and the sizes of long bones, head and vertebrae between oim/oim and wildtype mice and analyzed the effect of sclerostin antibody (Scl-Ab) on these parameters.Materials and methods:...

Introduction: Fracture healing is impaired in aged and osteoporotic patients. Because bone formation is tightly regulated by the mechanical conditions in the fracture gap and because suitable mechanical stimuli improve fracture healing (Claes et al. 1998), we investigated whether low-magnitude high-frequency vibration (LMHFV; Rubin et al. 2004) is able to improve delayed fracture healing induced by age and ovariectomy in mice.Sudy desig...

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Introduction: Nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (N-BPs) can inhibit the differentiation and function of osteoclasts derived from Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a dose-dependent manner. MUTZ-3 cells are a potentially useful human cell line for studying osteoclast differentiation. The aim of this study was to elucidate the action of N-BPs on MUTZ-3 cells.Methods: Human PBMCs and MUTZ-3 cells were cultured in α-MEM supplemented with he...

Introduction: QCT of the spine is typically restricted to the BMD analysis of the lumbar vertebrae. However, fractures frequently occur in the thoracolumbar region. Also the load distribution in the spine may depend on the intervertebral disc space (IDS), a good approximation of the intervertebral disc, which itself cannot be reliably assessed by X-ray based methods.Materials and methods: A QCT 3D acquisition and automated analysis technique (with option...