Bone Abstracts

Glucocorticoids (GC) are effective drugs in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, including various forms of arthritis. However, their use is limited by negative effects on bone mass and strength, resulting in increased osteoporotic fractures. Conditional knockout mice demonstrated that the GR in osteoblasts is essential for GC-dependent bone loss. Recent studies show that GC profoundly inhibit Wnt signaling by stimulating the expression of Wnt antagonists such as dickkopf-1...

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Milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8) is a glycoprotein that controls the engulfment of apoptotic cells and exerts anti-inflammatory effects. It has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several diseases, but its role in the bone microenvironment is still unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis that MFG-E8 also regulates bone metabolism and the development of arthritis.MFG-E8 expression was detected in mouse bones and primary murine osteobl...

Osteoporosis is a frequent disease leading to an increased risk of fractures caused by a systemic impairment of bone mass, strength, and microarchitecture. Given the emerging role of the Wnt signaling pathway in bone biology, we focused on the function of the important Wnt inhibitor dickkopf-1 (Dkk-1) and examined how the deletion of Dkk-1 solely in osteoblasts or osteocytes influences bone homeostasis. Therefore, we used the Cre-LoxP recombination system and crossed Dkk-1-flo...