Bone Abstracts

The aim of the study is to determine whether there is an imbalance between bone formation and bone resorption in nonbacterial osteitis. The osteoclast inhibitor pamidronate has been successfully used in nonbacterial osteitis. It is assumed, that there is any mismatch in the pathophysiology of osteoblasts or osteoclasts. Until now, we have no known publications on bone metabolism in nonbacterial osteitis. We chose osteoprotegerin (OP) and alkaline phosphatase (AP) as markers of...

Objectives: To describe the incidence of vertebral fractures in steroid-treated children.Methods: Fractures were assessed prospectively each year for 3 years according to the Genant semi-quantitative method. Proportions of children with incident fractures were determined annually over the study period. To examine associations with baseline clinical factors, the 3-year total number of incident fractures was analyzed using multivariable Poisson regression....

In type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients, an increased fracture risk is observed, although the bone mineral density is even higher than in non-diabetic patients. This raises the question of the quality of the organic and inorganic matrix in bone1–3. T2DM is also known to forward dysfunctions in the development of soft tissues such as brittle skin due to cross-linking of the collagen or inflammation of the gingiva. For the latter, a possible influence of diab...

Fragility fractures including hip fracture are a significant global burden. There is a growing body of evidence that the early environment influences an individual’s risk of fracture. Evidence from longitudinal studies have demonstrated the relationship between measures of body size in early life with later bone mass and risk of fragility fracture. These observations have been extended by parent/offspring cohorts with detailed examination of the maternal environment and s...

β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) biomaterials have been approved for the repair of osseous defects. However, in large defects, the substitution of biomaterial by authentic bone is inadequate to provide sufficient long-term mechanical stability. We aimed to develop composites of β-TCP ceramics and receptor activator of nuclear factor κ-B ligand (RANKL) to enhance the formation of osteoclasts thereby stimulating material resorption. RANKL was immobilized on &#9...

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...

The renal stones found in the mummies of Pandolfo III Malatesta, Lord of Fano (1370–1427) and an anonymous nobleman from Popoli (XVIII century) were investigated using different techniques. Both specimens were examined with binocular stereomicroscopy (BSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), also with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Multiple tiny fragments from surface and inner portions were submitted to X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Subsequently, the cal...

Introduction: Osteocalcin (OC) is the noncollagenous protein of bone matrix produced by osteoblasts which play an important role in bone metabolism. In its carboxylated form (c-OC) osteocalcin binds to hydroxyapatite in bone and plays a regulatory role in bone formation and mineralization. In contrast, undercarboxylated OC (uc-OC) binds less effectively to hydroxyapatite and a significant association has been found between fracture incidence and uc-OC in elderly subjects. Unde...

Proprotein convertase PC5/6 (Pcsk5) is expressed in mouse bone and Pcsk5 epiblast-specific conditional knockout mice have a bone phenotype displaying small size, delayed ossification and additional thoracic segments and ribs. Some features are attributed to growth and developmental factor 11 (GDF11) – a known substrate for PC5/6 – while the delayed mineralization has yet to be explained. Osteopontin (OPN) is a bone matrix protein with roles in miner...

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid (RA) and lead to multiple side effects including glucocorticoid induced osteoporosis (GIO). Our work challenges the dogma that transrepression of pro-inflammatory genes by the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is solely responsible for reducing inflammation, whereas transactivation of genes is causing side effects.Using conditional and function selective mutant mic...