Bone Abstracts

Cases of non-vitamin D deficiency rickets have been reported in African countries including The Gambia, South Africa and Nigeria where the likely aetiology is a chronically low dietary calcium intake. Additional aetiological factors in Gambian studies are iron deficiency leading to a disruption in phosphate metabolism.Surgical correction of pathological rickets-like lower-limb deformities is the most common operation performed at the Beit Cure Orthopaedi...

Fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) is a bone derived phosphate-regulating hormone which is elevated in hypophosphataemic rickets. Recent findings demonstrate iron deficiency as a potential mediator of FGF23 expression and murine studies have shown in utero effects of maternal iron deficiency leading to increased FGF23 concentration and disordered bone development (Clinkenbeard. JBMR 2013). Children with rickets in rural Gambia, West Africa, have high prevalences of i...

Objectives: Murine studies have shown that iron deficiency during pregnancy can cause abnormal phosphate and bone metabolism in offspring by elevating concentrations of fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23). FGF23 exists in plasma as an intact phosphate- and vitamin D-regulating hormone and its C-terminal fragment, a cleavage product that possibly antagonises the intact hormone. These findings are pertinent to low-income countries, where the prevalence of iron deficiency in preg...