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Bone Abstracts (2013) 1 PP462 | DOI: 10.1530/boneabs.1.PP462

1Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia; 2Psychiatric Hospital Rab, Rab, Croatia; 3Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia; 4Department of Physics, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.


Introduction: The RANKL/RANK/OPG system has a key role in bone metabolism. Beyond its role in bone loss, its importance was also documented during inflammation which occurrs in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) and its receptors RANK as well as its decoy receptor osteoprotegerin (OPG) in the colon during experimantal IBD and following BMP7 or corticosteroid therapy.

Methods/design: IBD was induced by intrarectal administration of trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS). After the IBD induction, the rats were treated with BMP7 (100 μg/ml) and sacrificed on the 2nd, 5th, 14th, and 30th day after the TNBS induction. The presence of RANKL, RANK and OPG in inflammatory bowel disease was determined by the continuous monitoring of the expression level in rat colons during different phases of experimental IBD as well as after BMP7 treatment by RT-PCR. Additionally, to investigate the influence of corticosteroid therapy on RANKL/RANK/OPG expression, we treated the diseased animals with 2 mg/kg of dexamethasone for 5 days.

Results: During IBD the expression of RANKL/RANK/OPG system was found in all colon samples. The expression level of OPG increased with disease duration and showed the largest expression on the 30th day of colitis which is opposite to the expression level of RANK whose expression decreased according to disease duration. BMP7 therapy and control animals showed no significant difference in their expression levels compared with diseased animals. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed the presence of OPG in epithelial cells and in lymphocytes. RANKL expression was also detected in colon samples with increased expression after corticosteroid therapy which is opposite to the expression of OPG.

Conclusion: The expression pattern of components of the RANKL/RANK/OPG system during IBD suggests their important role in inflammation and probably on bone loss associated with IBD.

Volume 1

European Calcified Tissue Society Congress 2013

Lisbon, Portugal
18 May 2013 - 22 May 2013

European Calcified Tissue Society 

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