Bone Abstracts

Tumors contain a small population of cancer stem cells (CSC) proposed to be responsible for tumor maintenance and relapse. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) activity has been used as a functional stem cell marker to isolate CSCs in different cancer types. This study used the Aldefluor assay and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis to isolate ALDH1high cells from five human sarcoma cell lines and one primary chordoma cell line. ALDH1high cell...

Marine cyanobacteria have been recognized as an important source of bioactive compounds. The cytotoxicity on cancer cell lines has been extensively explored and several cyanobacteria metabolites are already described as potential anticancer compounds or are considered useful templates for the design of new anticancer drugs. The majority of compounds have been isolated from filamentous or colonial cyanobacteria that growth in high densities along shores. In contrast, picoplankt...

Biological calcification is a regulated process in which different types of tissues, cells and biomolecules participate in the coordination and regulation of the metabolic events involved in accumulating large amounts of calcium phosphate. This process could be speeded up using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) systems. The objective of our study was to compare cell growth and formation of mineralized matrix nodules by osteoblasts grown in plastic and in titanium (Ti) discs surfaces. Th...

The biomineralization process is initiated inside matrix vesicles (MVs), with phosphate and calcium ions crystallizing as hydroxyapatite. This process is accomplished by the activities of several proteins, such as annexins (e.g. AnxV) that mediates Ca2+ influx into MVs and tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP), a phosphomonohydrolase that uses ATP and PPi as substrates. Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylserine (DPPS...

Bone is constantly being molded and shaped by the action of osteoclasts and osteoblasts. A proper equilibrium between both cell types metabolic activities is required to ensure an adequate skeletal tissue structure, and it involves resorption of old bone and formation of new bone tissue. It is reported that treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) can elicit alterations in skeletal structure, in particular in bone mineral density. Nevertheless, the knowledge regarding the eff...

Despite its rigid structure, bone is a dynamic tissue that is in constant remodeling. This process requires the action of the bone-resorbing osteoclasts and the bone-synthesing osteoblasts. One of the adverse effects attributed to some antihypertensive agents is the ability to alter normal bone metabolism. However, their effective actions on human bone cells remain to be clarified. In this work, the effects of five calcium channel blockers, a class of antihypertensive drugs (A...

Caffeine is a methylxanthine found in many foods and is widely consumed by the human population. Therefore, its effects and mechanisms in various tissues have been widely studied. But despite changing the postnatal bone growth, there are few studies about its effect on growth cartilage. The objective of this study was to evaluate the In vitro effects of caffeine on proliferation, apoptosis and gene transcripts expression of chondrogenic differentiation in growth carti...

Despite the presence of skeletal anomalies in fetuses of female rats treated with caffeine, their effect on bone’s formation and growth have not yet been elucidated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of caffeine on the formation and endochondral bone growth in rats. There had been used 36 Wistar rats distributed among the control group and others treated with caffeine at doses of 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg. Treated groups received caffeine daily throughou...

It is well known that sex hormone deficiency leads to increased bone turnover and subsequent bone loss. The metabolism of estrogens involves, among others, oxidation (mainly hydroxylation) by CYPs. The aim of this study was to determine whether Leu432Val polymorphism in the CYP1B1 gene is present also in Slovak population and subsequently, if it is associated with femoral and spinal bone mineral density (FBMD and SBMD), bone remodeling markers and fracture incidence in this po...

Introduction: To determine bone microarchitecture analysis (BMA) standard curves for wrist and ankle in men and women.Design: EpiReumaPt is an ongoing national, population-based, cross-sectional, epidemiologic study developed by the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology to estimate the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in Portugal. Trained interviewers have been randomly applying a standardized questionnaire to 10 000 subjects at their houses. Selected cases...