Bone is an amazing tissue that plays an important role in our body. It not only provides structure and support, but also protects vital organs from injury, serves as a scaffold for muscles and ligaments, and houses the bone marrow, which is important for the production of blood cells.
In addition, bone participates in acid-base and calcium-phosphate balance, and serves as a reservoir of important growth factors, hormones and minerals. The high level of calcium content in bone contributes to its strength and hardness, but it is also light and flexible, allowing movement.
Bone is a living tissue that is constantly renewed through bone remodeling – a process that involves a controlled balance between the breakdown of old bone and the formation of new, healthy bone. About 10 percent of adult bones are remodeled each year, which corrects any bone defects in the process, and provides minerals, hormones, and nutrients needed for optimal body function.
However, bone is still susceptible to disease and injury. One of the most common bone diseases is osteoporosis, defined as ‘porous bones’. Healthy human bone is porous, giving it a honeycomb appearance. However, in the presence of osteoporosis, porosity increases due to a decrease in bone weight and strength, making the bone brittle and vulnerable to fragility fractures.
In 2019, around 23,000 Maltese people were reported to have osteoporosis.
More than 200 million people worldwide are affected by this disease. In 2019, around 23,000 Maltese people were reported to have osteoporosis. The most common fractures are those of the hip, spine and wrist, which significantly affect a person’s quality of life, causing chronic debilitating pain and possibly loss of independence.
The Osteoporosis Society of Malta was established to help affected people and their relatives by providing information on preventive measures and treatment options for osteoporosis, and in doing so, to raise awareness of this asymptomatic disease.
Several risk factors contribute to osteoporosis, including poor diet (lack of calcium and vitamin D), smoking, alcohol consumption, low physical activity, chronic diseases (eg, diabetes, cancer, celiac disease , etc.) and genetic factors, among others.
A team of researchers at the University of Malta are actively investigating genetic markers for osteoporosis in Malta as part of the GRIT (Genetics of osteopoRosis In MalTa) project. The team, which includes biomedical scientists, bioinformatics specialists and endocrinologists, has used modern ‘omics’ technology to reveal important factors associated with osteoporosis, which will be further confirmed in cells and fish models.
Our bones are truly amazing and deserve more attention. The purpose of the research is to increase knowledge about bone biology, identify the best treatment options based on a person’s genetic makeup and create diagnostic markers to predict disease outcomes in affected individuals.
Melissa M. Formosa is an associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and leads the GRIT (R&I-2022-007L) and ZeEBRA (R&I-2019-018T) projects targeting osteoporosis in Malta. Marichela Schembri has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in applied medical science and is employed as a research support officer on the GRIT project. The projects are funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology, for and on behalf of the Science and Technology Foundation, through the FUSION R&I Technology Development Programme. More information on the Maltese Osteoporosis Society can be found on its Facebook page.
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DID YOU KNOW?
• The onion genome is five times larger than the human genome.
• African elephants have names for each other.
• In 2021, Dutch scientists succeeded in growing tear glands outside the human body that could produce tears.
• ‘Wikipedia’ is a portmanteau of the Hawaiian word ‘wiki’, meaning ‘quick’, and ‘encyclopedia’.
For more trivia, see: www.um.edu.mt/think.
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