Endocrine Abstracts

In the past 20 years or so careful observations in human and rodent diseases of bone metabolism have greatly helped to understand these diseases, but also uncover important pathways in bone metabolism. Such pathways have led to successful drug discovery programmes and some of the latest drugs to be licensed for use in common bone diseases have directly been the result of understanding such ‘experiments of nature’. An example is the targeting of cathepsin K as an anti...

The relationship between bone and fat has been the subject of intense investigations over the last decade. In particular the concept that adipocytes and osteoblasts arise from the same precursor has led to significant advances in our understanding the bone marrow milieu and the in vivo responsiveness of the skeleton to nutritional, genetic and environmental stimuli. PPAR-γ lies at the center of a mesenchymal network that ultimately determines the fate of marrow ste...

GH levels decline with aging and this is thought to contribute to the age-related decrease in bone mass. However, data on the effects of GH replacement on osteoporosis are contradictory. The potential therapeutic benefits depend on the dose, frequency and duration of treatment. It is for this reason that treatments with GH secretagogues (GHS), which stimulate pulsatile release of GH as occurs in normal physiology, have been postulated to be a more successful therapeutic approa...

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