Gastrointestinal inflammation, such as occurs in inflammatory bowel disease, triggers the expansion of a population of “bone-eating” cells, leading to bone loss.
Changes to the bone matrix that occur during aging may point to novel targets for treating osteoporosis.
Mustafa Unal, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has been selected by the Orthopedic Research Society to receive its 2017 Alice L. Jee Young Investigator Award for work that potentially will improve the clinical assessment of bone strength and quality.
New findings show that fibrin, a protein that was thought to play a key role in fracture healing, is not required, shifting understanding of how fractures heal.
The protein neurofibromin acts as a brake in a signaling pathway that is important in bone development, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.
A combination treatment delivered to the site of fractures may improve bone healing in patients with the genetic disease neurofibromatosis type-1.