Bone Abstracts

Several cell types form the hematopoietic stem cell niche. These niches sometimes become hijacked by cancer cells, which may later form metastatic lesions. Our aim was therefore to characterize the bone marrow microenvironment to affect cancer cell homing to bone marrow.Pharmacologic modification consisting of PTH to stimulate the osteoblasts and zoledronic acid to prevent the increase in osteoclasts through PTH resulted in increased homing of cancer cel...

Osteoblasts line the inner surface of the bone and are located in close proximity to the bone marrow, where hematopoiesis takes place. Osteoblasts produce several cytokines that affect various steps of hematopoiesis, and produce fibronectin isoforms that affect cell differentiation. Little is known however on whether osteoblasts modulate the immune response. Our aim was to evaluate the role of fibronectin originating from the osteoblasts on hematopoiesis and the immune respons...