Bone Abstracts

Objectives: To determine any relationship of serum concentrations of osteoprotegerin (OPG), sRANKL and sRANKL:OPG ratio with idiopathic hypercalciuria (IH) in children, as there is some evidence of increased bone resorption in these patients.Methods: In a prospective study, twenty four children of median age 6.5 years (range 2.3–16.4) with IH (five had urolithiasis and two nephrocalcinosis) were examined at the time of diagnosis and after 3 months o...

Objectives: In the modern society, all individuals are exposed throughout life to a variety of chemicals, which may contribute significantly to the human disease burden. Most of these chemicals are transferred to the fetus in-utero and to the infant via mother’s milk. Until recently, few studies have addressed effects of chemicals on the development of mineralized tissues following exposure during these early stages of life. In this experimental study, we analyse...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has recently emerged as a factor able to concurrently target age related diseases as neurodegenerative disease, osteoporosis and metabolic syndrome. However the role of BDNF in the frailty syndrome associated with aging has never been investigated. The deletion of central BDNF gene in mice results in increased bone mass and in vitro experiments show that BDNF has a positive effect on bone. BDNF expression is mediated by estroge...

Introduction: The fat-soluble and vitamin K2 homologe Menaquinone-7 (MK-7) is needed for post-translational modification of proteins essential in blood coagulation, and in metabolic pathways in various tissues like bone. Recent studies found an association between long-term anticoagulant treatment (OAC) and reduced bone quality due to reduction of active osteocalcin. OAC is often linked to an undesired soft-tissue calcification in both children and adults and may lead to incre...

Infantile spinal muscular atrophy X-linked 2 (SMAX2) is a rare form of spinal muscular atrophy manifesting in severe hypotonia, areflexia, arthrogryposis, facial weakness and cryptorchidism, as frequently accompanied by bone fractures.We present a boy patient with SMAX2 who presented typical symptoms from birth, as preceded by reduced fetal movements in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. In the first days of life the patient was found to have s...

Metastasis to bone is the leading cause of death for breast carcinoma, and much focus in the biology and therapy relays on epigenetic alterations. Since DNA-methyltransferase blockade counteracts tumour growth, we utilized 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (dAza) to clarify whether molecular events undergoing epigenetic control were critical for bone metastatization. Here, we studied Secreted-Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine (SPARC), matricellular glycoprotein associated with bo...

Introduction: Dual X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) is currently the best technique available to evaluate bone mass, enabling the diagnosis of osteoporosis, the prediction of fracture risk and monitoring.Clinical good practices consider as preferred measuring sites the lumbar (L1–L4) and proximal femur (neck and total). The vertebral morphometry is a quantitative method for the diagnosis of vertebral fractures based on measuring vertebral heights.<p...

Objectives: Postural balance and gait speed are risk factors for falls and hip fractures independent of bone mineral density (BMD). The standard risk assessment tool, FRAX, does however not include any estimate of fall risk. Identifying high-risk individuals correctly is be of great clinical importance why further improvement of FRAX would be clinically valuable. The primary aim of this study was to see if one-leg standing time, the maximum number of steps on a line or gait sp...

Objective: Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the most commonly used method for evaluating bone mineral density (BMD) in children and adolescents. An innovative echographic approach for osteoporosis diagnosis, directly applicable on both femoral neck and lumbar spine, has been recently introduced and clinically validated through single-center and multicenter studies in a adult population. This developed approach has been subsequently defined as Radiofrequency Echographi...

Background: Patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) are treated with L-thyroxine (L-T4) in relatively hight doses to suppress endogenous TSH levels. Very long-term effect of thyroid hormones supplementation on bone are controversial.Objetive: To study the possible negative effects on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone markers in DTC patients followed in our center.Methods: A 46 po...