Bone Abstracts

Fragility fractures including hip fracture are a significant global burden. There is a growing body of evidence that the early environment influenceS an individual’s risk of fracture. Evidence from longitudinal studies have demonstrated the relationship between measures of body size in early life with later bone mass and risk of fragility fracture. These observations have been extended by parent/offspring cohorts with detailed examination of the maternal environment and specific effects on foetal and neonatal bone size and post natal trajectories. The mechanism for persisting effects on an individual’s bone phenotype are likely to involve epigenetic changes of key regulators of bone mass. Current work has focused on CpG methylation of the vitamin D/RXR and eNOS pathways and offer potential insights as well as surrogate outcomes and therapeutic targets for future studies.