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Vitamin D Signals To Prevent Bone Loss During Osteoporosis

Date:
January 24, 2006
Source:
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Summary:
Researchers at the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Japan, show that vitamin D prevents bone loss in mice by suppressing the protein c-Fos, thereby inhibiting development of osteoclasts - cells responsible for bone breakdown in osteoporosis. In addition, a new vitamin D-related compound (DD281) prevented bone loss in these mice more potently than natural vitamin D.
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The risk of bone fracture resulting from falls increases as we age due to bone loss and osteoporosis. Physicians have routinely prescribed vitamin D and vitamin D–related drugs to retard bone loss, but until now, little was known about the specific targets of vitamin D in bone.

In a study appearing online on January 19 in advance of print publication in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Kyoji Ikeda and colleagues from the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology in Japan examine mice with severe osteoporosis and show that oral vitamin D treatment inhibits the production of the protein c-Fos.

As c-Fos plays a key role in the development of osteoclasts, which are the specialized cells responsible for bone breakdown and resorption, the authors also show that the vitamin D–mediated inhibition of c-Fos prevented bone loss through a suppression of osteoclast development.

In addition, the authors used mice whose ovaries had been removed, in a more "human-like" model of osteoporosis, to screen for other vitamin D–like agents with c-Fos–suppressing activity. They identified a new vitamin D–related compound (DD281) that could prevent bone loss in these mice more potently than the natural vitamin D.

These findings clarify how vitamin D helps limit bone resorption in conditions such as osteoporosis, and suggest that synthetic vitamin D analogs, including DD281, may warrant clinical trial to asses their potential in the treatment of osteoporosis and other related disorders of bone resorption.

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TITLE: c-Fos protein as a target of anti-osteoclastogenic action of vitamin D, and synthesis of new analogs


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Materials provided by Journal of Clinical Investigation. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


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Journal of Clinical Investigation. "Vitamin D Signals To Prevent Bone Loss During Osteoporosis." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 January 2006. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060123171946.htm>.
Journal of Clinical Investigation. (2006, January 24). Vitamin D Signals To Prevent Bone Loss During Osteoporosis. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060123171946.htm
Journal of Clinical Investigation. "Vitamin D Signals To Prevent Bone Loss During Osteoporosis." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060123171946.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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