Bone Abstracts

Purpose: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare inflammatory rheumatic disease that has been associated with an increased risk of low bone mineral density (BMD). However, data on risk factors associated with bone loss in SSc are scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of and the risk factors for low BMD in patients with SSc.Methods: Cross-sectional data of 61 patients with SSc were collected. BMD in the lumbar spine, total hip a...

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Osteoporosis is common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Since osteoblasts express receptors for CXCL8 and CCL20, which are produced by inflammatory cells around the inflamed joints in RA, we hypothesized that CXCL8 and CCL20 contribute to osteoporosis in RA by affecting osteoblast proliferation, differentiation, and osteoblast-osteoclast communication.Primary human osteoblasts were cultured±CXCL8 (2–200 pg/ml) and CCL20 (5–500 pg/ml) for 14 d...

Delayed fracture healing is frequently experienced in patients with systemic inflammation such as during rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The reasons for this are diverse, but could also be caused by inflammatory cytokines and/or growth factors in serum from patients with active disease. We hypothesized that serum from patients with active RA contains circulating inflammatory factors that inhibit differentiation of osteochondrogenic precursors.Serum was obtain...