osteoporosis tagged posts

New research suggests the liver plays a previously unrecognized role in bone health, but only in males. A McGill University-led study published in Matrix Biology found that a protein made in the liver helps regulate bone growth in male mice, but not in females. The findings may help explain why men with liver disease are more likely to experience bone loss.

The protein, known as plasma fibronectin, is naturally present in blood at higher levels in men than in women, declines when the liver is damaged and builds up in bone to modulate bone formation...

Some of the principal treatments for osteoporosis, denosumab, zoledronate and calcium, could have a protective effect against COVID-19 in patients who take them, specifically a 30 to 40% reduction in the rate of infection, according to the results of a joint study by Hospital del Mar, the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), Pompeu Fabra University and the Pere Virgili Health Park. The study, the first of its kind in the world, has just been published the journal Aging.

The last author of the study, Dr...

A protein called Cbf-beta plays a critical role in maintaining bone-producing cells. An examination of aged mice showed dramatically reduced levels of Cbf-beta in bone marrow cells, as compared to younger mice. Thus, the researchers propose, maintaining Cbf-beta may be essential to preventing human age-associated osteoporosis that is due to elevated creation of fat cells.

A major health problem in older people is age-associated osteoporosis that increases the risk of fractures. Often this is accompanied by an increase in fat cells in the bone marrow. University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have now detailed an underlying mechanism leading to that osteoporosis. When this mechanism malfunctions, progenitor cells stop creating bone-producing cells, and instead create fat cells...

Knocking out the Spop protein in developing mouse limb leads to brachydactyly, a shortening of the fingers and toes (left) and reduced bone density (right). Credit: Liu Laboratory, Penn State University

Loss of a key protein leads to defects in skeletal development including reduced bone density and a shortening of the fingers and toes – brachydactyly. The discovery was made by researchers at Penn State University who knocked out the Speckle-type POZ Protein (Spop) in the mouse and characterized the impact on bone development. The research redefines the role of Spop during bone development and provides a new potential target for the diagnosis and treatment of bone diseases such as osteoporosis.

“The Spop protein is involved in Hedgehog signaling – a well-studied cell-to-cell communicatio...