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Protein Identified That Can Result in Fragile Bones
Listed On: Thursday, July 29, 2010
Medical College of Georgia
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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Too little of a protein called neogenin results in a smaller skeleton during development and sets the stage for a more fragile bone framework lifelong, Medical College of Georgia researchers report. ...Continue
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Official URL: https://my.mcg.edu/portal/page/portal/News/archive/2010/Protein%20identifi...
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Summary: Too little of a protein called neogenin results in a smaller skeleton during development and sets the stage for a more fragile bone framework lifelong, Medical College of Georgia researchers report. Neogenin doesn't make bone; rather, it forms a protein complex essential to turning on cartilage-producing genes, the researchers found. It's also why neogenin could be a good therapeutic target for turning the tide on cartilage or bone loss that occurs in osteoarthritis, Xiong said. Initially the skeleton consists of soft bone or cartilage, which attracts blood vessels as well as the osteoblasts that replace most cartilage with hard bone over time. After birth, growth plates, where hard and soft bone meet, enable bones to lengthen and children to grow. While bone cells continue to turn over, bone growth and loss should balance each other out after puberty due to osteoclasts – cells that break down and resorb bone. Neogenin, which Xiong has shown helps direct neurons during brain development and aid in regulation of iron levels, is found throughout bone and cartilage and numerous other tissues. Xiong suspects the protein has multiple roles in adulthood as well, albeit slightly different ones. Meanwhile, she wants to confirm neogenin's influence on cartilage function in adulthood.
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