Bone Abstracts

Objectives: The ability to discriminate bone fractures that result from non-accidental injuries and those that result from underlying bone fragility is limited by the lack of clinical instrumentation to directly measure bone mechanical properties. The BioDent Hfc (Active Life Scientific) is an experimental device that has been validated for measuring cortical bone fracture resistance in adults. We are currently developing protocols to test the feasibility of its use in infants...

Skeletal strength, maintained through bone remodelling, is regulated through complex communication networks between bone cells and other tissues including endocrine cells. Bone also functions as an endocrine organ in its own right. The peptide hormone amylin (or Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (IAPP)), has links to both bone and energy metabolism. A member of the calcitonin family of peptides, it is co-secreted with insulin from pancreatic β-cells and is linked with diabetes-as...

Adaptive responses of the skeleton to loading changes architecture and physical properties in order to optimise strength for function. However, bone is subjected to many local and circulating osteotropic factors, most acting on G-protein coupled receptors. Receptor activity modifying protein-3 is a single trans-membrane domain receptor accessory protein, which aids in trafficking of calcitonin and calcitonin-like receptors to the cell surface and changes ligand selectivity. As...

Background: Proline and hydroxyproline account for ~25% of aminoacids in collagen., Prolidase (peptidase D (EC 3.4.14.9)), cleaves iminodipeptides with a C-terminal proline or hydroxyproline, playing a major role in collagen catabolism. Mice with prolidase deficiency (PD) present with varied phenotypes including reduced size compared to wild-type littermates. We measured structural and mechanical properties of bones in PD mice.Methods: Whole femurs from ...

Background: At present, clinical assessment of bone strength in children predominantly relies bone mass measurement using absorptiometry (DXA) or QCT densitometric approaches. However, bone strength is not only dependent on mass/density, but also structural and material mechanical properties. Currently no technique measures bone mechanical properties. Recently, a new micro-indentation device, the reference point indentation (RPI) instrument has been validated for the measure o...