all bones stories

Cancer drug activates adult stem cells

404132862 — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:35:29 -0500

The use of a drug used in cancer treatment activates stem cells that differentiate into bone appears to cause regeneration of bone tissue and be may be a potential treatment strategy for osteoporosis, according to a report in the February 2008 Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Man-made medical mystery gets second solution

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:04:10 -0400

Researchers have created a new material that they believe improves on an eight-year-old solution to a decades-long medical mystery over the cause of widespread artificial joint failure.

The new material, developed at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and implanted for the first time July 19, could help fill the demand for higher-performance joints from a new generation of patients.

Researchers discover mechanism that regulates bone growth

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:35:58 -0400

Harvard researchers have identified a protein that helps regulate bone growth and may lead to new drug targets to fight osteoporosis, the bone loss condition that the National Institutes of Health terms "a major public health threat" to more than half of people age 50 or older.

The research, conducted by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, identified a protein in mice called Schnurri-3 that when absent results in dramatic increases in bone mass.

Bone-marrow-derived stem cells can reverse genetic kidney disease

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:26:56 -0400

The discovery that bone-marrow derived stem cells can regenerate damaged renal cells in an animal model of Alport syndrome provides a potential new strategy for managing this inherited kidney disease and offers the first example of how stem cells may be useful in repairing basement membrane matrix defects and restoring organ function.

Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the findings are described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which appeared on-line the week of April 24, 2006.

Symptoms of Alport syndrome, the second-most common genetic cause of kidney failure, usually appear in children, affecting the kidneys' filtration system and typically leading to end-stage renal disease in the patient's teens, 20s or 30s. The disease additionally causes deafness in some patients.

"This is one of 31 human diseases that occur because of genetic defects in the body's extracellular matrix and basement membrane proteins," explains the study's senior author, Raghu Kalluri, PhD, chief of the division of matrix biology at BIDMC and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Scorpion venom blocks bone loss

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:33:30 -0400

Rats given kalitoxin, from scorpion venom, enjoyed 84 percent less jawbone loss than those that didn't get the injections. "We are very excited because this is the first demonstration that this type of compound may be useful in treating periodontal disease," says Martin Taubman, Harvard professor of oral and developmental biology who chairs the Department of Immunology at the Forsyth Institute. "We hope that our findings will lead to success in alleviating the bone-ravaging effects of many other diseases." Good candidates include rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. According to researcher Paloma Valverde, who had the original idea for the experiment, kalitoxin blocks Kv1.3, a protein that plays a major role in inflammation. When Kv1.3 is blocked, it decreases the activity of another protein that plays a key role in stimulating bone-eating cells known as osteoclasts. "This is the first study we know of to show that such a blocker can decrease alveolar (jaw) bone loss," Valverde notes. "Furthermore, we observed no toxic side effects. Therefore, we now have a novel and apparently safe strategy to ameliorate bone destruction associated with periodontal disease." Before experiments with humans begin, however, there will need to be toxicology tests. The rats came out fine, but the venom ingredient must be tested for safety in people.

Osteoporosis appears to be poorly treated after fractures

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:32:16 -0400

Hip and wrist factures, suffered by more than 550,000 individuals annually, are a leading cause of hospitalization and death in the elderly. Often one fracture from osteoporosis leads to another, but with the help of medications, this risk can be cut by as much as 60 percent. However, as outlined in the October issue of The American Journal of Medicine, researchers determined that despite their proven benefits, the majority of fracture patients were not taking osteoporosis medications, even when available at significantly reduced rates.

New drug combination may prevent dangerous complication of bone marrow transplantation

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:28:46 -0400

An ongoing clinical study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists suggests that a three-drug therapy, which includes a novel medication called sirolimus, reduces graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in stem cell transplant patients more effectively and with less toxicity than traditional treatments. The study seeks to produce better outcomes for patients receiving stem cell transplants for diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma. Such patients are at risk for GVHD, a condition in which transplanted immune cells mount an attack on patients' own tissue and organs.

Combined kidney and bone marrow transplantation allows patients to discontinue anti-rejection drugs

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:25:16 -0400

Megan Sykes, head of the bone marrow transplantation section of the Massachusetts Transplantation Biology Research Center and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, recently described how infusing kidney transplant recipients with bone marrow from their donors immediately after the transplant surgery induced a state of mixed chimerism, a blending of donor and recipient immune systems. All of the patients Sykes described had developed kidney failure as a result of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Traditionally, such patients had no good treatment options. They were not eligible for kidney transplantation because of their cancer, and the kidney failure made them unable to tolerate the toxic aspects of standard bone marrow transplantation, which has been used for some myeloma patients. For many years Sykes and her colleagues at MGH -- along with collaborators at BioTransplant Inc. of Charlestown, Mass. -- have been studying mixed chimerism and its application for both treatment of blood-cell cancers and for inducing tolerance, a state in which an organ recipient's immune system no longer recognizes the donor's tissues as foreign.

Maternal bone lead levels pose toxic prenatal risk

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:22:10 -0400

Although much attention has been paid to public health efforts to reduce lead exposure in children between the ages of six months and five years, when environmental lead exposures (such as from leaded paint in old houses) tend to be greatest, less attention has been paid to understanding the transfer of lead from mother to fetus and its resulting health effects. Now, Harvard researchers have concluded that elevated maternal bone lead levels are linked to impaired cognitive development in infants. Given the lengthy amount of time lead can reside in maternal bone and that bone is demineralized into the blood during pregnancy, the findings highlight a potentially significant public health problem, linking the history of a mother's lead exposure to risk for the next generation. The study appeared in the July 2002 issue of the journal Pediatrics. Howard Hu, principal investigator of the study, is associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. The study was supported by grants from the March of Dimes, National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety, US and Consejo National de Cienca y Technologia and CONSERVA, Department of Federal District, Mexico.

Gene found for rare bone disorder

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:13:19 -0400

Cherubism may sound angelic, but it certainly is not. The rare bone disorder afflicts children starting at about age 3 or 4, causing them to develop chubby cheeks and upward-looking eyes like those of a cherub. It is not known how many people have the disorder; about 200 cases have been described in the medical literature. Symptoms usually recede after puberty, and children with mild forms of cherubism generally appear normal as adults. However, in its severe forms, cherubism can lead to excessive destruction of the jawbone. Many victims of the disorder have difficulty chewing because of reduced jaw movement. Now, Harvard Medical School researchers have identified the mutant gene responsible for cherubism.

Gene initiates joint formation

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:11:31 -0400

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a molecule that plays a central role in the initiation of joint formation. Studying limb formation in the developing chick, postdoctoral fellow Christine Hartmann and her adviser, Clifford Tabin, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics, found that a previously uncharacterized member of the Wnt family, Wnt14, was expressed early in regions of the embryo that become synovial joints. The presence of Wnt14 in presumptive joint regions early in development led Hartmann and Tabin to investigate the role of Wnt14 in the initiation of joint formation. Their work, which identified "the first gene reported to have the ability to initiate joint formation," says Hartmann, was reported in the Feb. 9, 2001, Cell.

Active girls who drink colas are five times more likely to fracture bones

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:06:52 -0400

In a study, more than 460 ninth- and tenth-grade girls reported their activity levels, soda drinking habits, and history of bone fractures. A researcher found that drinking any type of soda was linked to an increased likelihood of having a bone fracture, and that the greatest increases were for those girls who drank cola beverages, and reported their physical activity as either high-level or vigorous. Researcher Grace Wyshak says that she doesn't know why cola beverages or other soft drinks increase likelihood of bone fractures. One possibility is that cola drinks contain phosphoric acid, which has previously been shown to affect calcium metabolism and bone mass. Others believe that young people may be choosing to replace milk in their diets with soda, giving their growing bodies less calcium with which to make bones.