Osteoporosis - the thinning of bone and the loss of bone density that increases the risk of fractures is a major health problem in older people. This is condition is often accompanied by an increase in fat cells in the bone marrow.
Researchers from University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US found that a protein called Cbf-beta plays a critical role in maintaining the bone-producing cells.
Furthermore, examination of aged mice showed dramatically reduced levels of Cbf-beta in bone marrow cells, as compared to younger mice, researchers said.
Thus, maintaining Cbf-beta may be essential to preventing human age-associated osteoporosis that is due to elevated creation of fat cells, researchers said.
Also Read
The team detailed an underlying mechanism leading to osteoporosis.
Bone is a living tissue that constantly rebuilds. Bones need a constant new creation of cells specific to their tissue, including the bone-producing cells called osteoblasts. Osteoblasts live only about three months and do not divide, researchers said.
They focused on the molecular mechanism that controls the lineage commitment switch between the osteoblast and adipocyte tracks.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content