Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences on calcified tissues
Bone Abstracts (2016) 5 WSWS1.1 | DOI: 10.1530/boneabs.5.WS1.1

ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.


The maintenance and adaptation of bone morphology results from orchestrated remodeling processes. These processes are locally coordinated by osteocytes with biochemical signals that result in increased or decreased bone formation or resorption activities. To better understand the morphology, we therefore have to understand how osteocytes determine dynamic morphometric parameters within their local microenvironment. Recently, a local in vivo environment (LivE) imaging technique was developed using in vivo microCT in combination with histology and image processing. LivE imaging allows to quantify the mechanical and remodeling in vivo microenvironment of hundreds of individual osteocytes for several weeks prior to histological processing. Here, we used LivE imaging in trabecular mouse bone to show that dynamic morphometry is locally linked to quantitative single-cell gene expression. The 6th caudal vertebrae of adult female C57BL/6 mice (n=9) were imaged three times over a period of 2 weeks by in vivo microCT and 3D dynamic morphometry. Local strain energy density (SED) was calculated for each time point by micro-finite element analysis. Cryosections were registered into 3D microCT data. Osteocytes were identified, mapped into the microCT data, tracked back in time through LivE imaging and grouped according to their SED values and remodeling state. By laser capture microdissection, osteocytes (n=720) were isolated in subpopulations containing ten osteocytes on average and their gene expression was analyzed. LivE imaging showed that osteocytes around eroding surfaces blocked bone formation activities by Sfrp1 and increased local bone resorption by MMPs. Osteocytes in areas of high SED increased not only WNT signaling by expression of β-catenin and connexin43 but also increased the expression level of the extracellular matrix protein Col1a2 indicating perilacunar matrix remodeling. LivE imaging allows bridging the gap between dynamic morphometry and biochemical signaling and thereby helps us to understand how osteocytes contribute to bone remodeling on the molecular level.

Volume 5

43rd Annual European Calcified Tissue Society Congress

Rome, Italy
14 May 2016 - 17 May 2016

European Calcified Tissue Society 

Browse other volumes

Article tools

My recent searches

No recent searches.

My recently viewed abstracts