Towards Control Over the Dynamic Equilibrium of Bone Tissue Maintenance

Bone loses mass and strength with age, leading to the condition called osteoporosis. The extracellular matrix of bone is dynamically remodeled throughout life, built up osteoblast cells and broken down by osteoclast cells. Osteoporosis is the result of a growing imbalance in cell activity and cell creation that favors osteoclasts. There are many contributing causes, and some uncertainty of which of these causes are more or less important. The chronic inflammation that accompanies aging does appear to be important, particularly that connected to the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) of senescent cells. Given that osteoporosis is an imbalance, there are many potential ways to treat the condition, only some of which address the root causes. Any methodology that enhances osteoblast activity to a suitable degree or suppresses osteoclast activity to a suitable degree should be compensatory and beneficial, all other things remaining equal. That said, one would expect targeting the root causes of the imbalance to be a better approach, more likely to produce a larger effect size, and likely to have other beneficial effects elsewhere in the body. For example, the use of senolytic drugs to remove senescent cells is beneficial in many ways beyond the plausibly beneficial impact of a reduced SASP on processes of bone maintenance. Current advances in regulation of bone homeostasis Bone homeostasis in the adult skeleton is complex processes. Human skele...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs