Osteoporosis :: Protein builds bigger, stronger bones

U.S. researchers said they have genetically engineered a strain of mice with bone density up to four times greater than ordinary mice.

Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Medicine said the rodents could help develop new drugs for preventing or treating osteoporosis and other human diseases. The secret appears to be a protein called Wnt10b.

Known to inhibit the development of fatty tissue in mice, Wnt10b also stimulates the growth of bone cells, the researchers report in the Feb. 21 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To study the effect of Wnt10b on tissue development, the team created an artificial sequence of DNA, called a transgene, which linked Wnt10b to another protein found in fatty tissue and in bone marrow. They injected the transgene DNA into fertilized mouse eggs, then bred mice that inherited the new gene to create the transgenic animals used in their research.

They found that femurs from the transgenic mice had almost four times as much bone and were mechanically stronger than femurs from control mice. Next, they examined bones from the animals who were engineered to lack Wnt10b and found those mice had 30 percent lower bone volume and bone mineral density than normal mice.


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