Bone Abstracts

Being efficient and productive in research is frequently linked to a structured organization of the available research time. This applies to any individual scientist including PhD students, Postdocs, or PIs. In particular PIs but also to some extend more senior Postdocs have a responsibility for more junior scientists and in the case of PIs even of an entire research team. This does not only require overseeing and organizing his own time but also the time and workload of other...

Bone is a highly dynamic tissue that is constantly dismantled and rebuilt throughout life by the coordinated and balanced activities of matrix-resorbing osteoclasts, bone-forming osteoblasts and matrix-embedded osteocytes. This system is governed by interconnected signaling pathways, transcription factors, secreted regulators, genetic determinants and epigenetic cues including non-coding RNAs. Canonical Wnt signaling is among the most influential pathways regulating tissue dev...

Osteosarcoma is the most prevalent primary bone tumor that occurs mainly during adolescence. Osteosarcoma is an aggressive mesenchymal tumor that often arises due to mutations in the tumor suppressor gene p53. Treatment of osteosarcoma patients includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgical approaches. Nevertheless, at advanced stages the survival rate is rather low. Thus, a better understanding of the underlying biology of osteosarcoma might help to develop novel thera...

Biographical DetailsEric HesseEric Hesse studied Medicine at Hannover Medical School in Germany where he became MD in 2003. He was trained in Orthopedic Surgery and graduated as PhD in 2007 in Genetics & Cell Biology in Hannover, Germany. In 2005, he moved as a Postdoctoral Fellow funded by the German Research Foundation to the laboratory of Dr ...

Increasing bone formation is an effective approach to prevent osteoporotic fractures. Although the intermittent administration of PTH is an established osteoanabolic therapy and an anti-Sclerostin antibody (Scle-AB) is currently being tested in phase 3 clinical trials, a great need exists for additional bone anabolic agents. Thus, in the context of a bi-national consortium we aim to uncover novel epigenomic networks controlling bone formation to identify new epigenomic approac...

Signaling pathways crucial in bone development, including Wnt, are also upregulated in breast cancer cells to promote tumor growth in the skeleton, a process known as osteomimicry. Thus, we hypothesized that bone metastatic tumor cells also aberrantly express osteogenic miRNAs to support osteomimetic properties. We have previously shown that miR-218 is highly expressed in osteoblasts and promotes osteogenic differentiation. Interestingly, expression analysis revealed a signifi...

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Analysis of osteocyte function often uses promoter elements of osteocyte-specific genes i.e. SOST or Dentin-matrix-protein 1 (Dmp1) to overexpress genes or the Cre-recombinase for conditional deletion studies. However, evidence suggests that these promoters may not be osteocyte-specific, which would be critical for subsequent data interpretation. To investigate the selectivity of supposedly osteocyte-specific in vivo models, we crossed the 8kb-Dmp1-Cre mice (i) with A...

During aging bone resorption often increases while bone formation decreases, thereby reducing bone mass and bone mineral density (BMD) and leading to osteoporosis. Evidence suggests that extrinsic factors may influence bone remodeling. While poorly understood, these mechanisms may function by inducing epigenomic programs that diminish the bone forming capacity of osteoblasts. This study is part of a bi-national consortium aimed at uncovering epigenomic networks controlling the...

Patients with osteoporotic fractures are frequently treated in trauma surgery. While fracture fixation is at the center of patient care, treatment of the underlying bone disorder is often not considered, thereby increasing the risk for subsequent fractures. Closing this treatment gap is therefore among the greatest challenges in modern trauma surgery. To address this problem, we established a fully structured, multidisciplinary, sector-spanning fracture liaison service (FLS), ...