Bone is a remarkable tissue that plays a critical role in our bodies. 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 essential for blood cell production.
Additionally, bone participates in acid-base and calcium-phosphate balance, and serves as a reservoir for important growth factors, hormones and minerals. The high degree of calcium content in bone contributes to its strength and rigidity, yet it is also lightweight and flexible, allowing movement.
Bone is a living tissue that is constantly being renewed through bone remodelling – a process involving a tightly regulated balance between the breakdown of old bone and the formation of new, healthy bone. Approximately 10 per cent of the adult skeleton is remodelled each year, which repairs any bone defects in the process, and releases minerals, hormones and factors required for optimal body functions.
Yet bone is still susceptible to disease and injury. One of the commonest bone diseases is osteoporosis, defined as ‘porous bones’. Healthy human bone is porous, giving it a honeycombed appearance. However, in the presence of osteoporosis, porosity increases as a result of decreased bone mass and strength, rendering bone brittle and vulnerable to fragility fractures.
In 2019, around 23,000 Maltese people were reportedly suffering from osteoporosis
More than 200 million people worldwide are affected by this disease. In 2019, around 23,000 Maltese people were reportedly suffering from osteoporosis. Common fractures are those of the hip, spine and wrist, which significantly compromise the individual’s quality of life, causing chronic disabling pain and possibly loss of independence.
The Malta Osteoporosis Society was set up to support affected individuals and their relatives by providing information on preventive measures and treatment options for osteoporosis, and in so doing, increase awareness on this largely asymptomatic disease.
Several risk factors contribute to osteoporosis, including poor diet (lack of calcium and vitamin D), smoking, alcohol intake, low physical activity, coexisting diseases (e.g. diabetes, cancer, coeliac disease, etc) and genetic factors, among others.
A team of researchers at the University of Malta are actively investigating the genetic determinants underlying osteoporosis in Malta as part of the GRIT (Genetics of osteopoRosis In MalTa) project. The team, consisting of biomedical scientists, bioinformaticians and endocrinologists, have applied cutting-edge ‘omics’ technology to unravel key factors implicated in osteoporosis, that will be further validated in cells and fish models.
Our bones are truly amazing and merit more attention. The aim of the research is to increase the knowledge on bone biology, identify improved treatment options based on the person’s genetic make-up and develop diagnostic biomarkers to predict disease outcome in susceptible individuals.
Melissa M. Formosa is an associate professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences and leads the GRIT (R&I-2022-007L) and ZeEBRA (R&I-2019-018T) projects focused on osteoporosis in Malta. Marichela Schembri holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in applied biomedical science and is employed as a research support officer on the GRIT project. The projects are financed by the Malta Council for Science & Technology, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the FUSION R&I Technology Development Programme. More information on the Malta Osteoporosis Society can be accessed on its Facebook page.
Sound Bites
• Scientists have discovered that an attenuated (weakened) virus can help eliminate cancer in mice. In addition, mice that were treated with this virus were more resistant to developing tumours later in life. The attenuated virus works and is safe even in immunosuppressed mice. That’s a critical finding, as many cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and other cancer treatments have suppressed immune systems.
• Scientists are peering into the past and uncovering new clues about the early universe. Since light takes a long time to travel through space, they are now able to see how galaxies looked billions of years ago. Astronomers have discovered that spiral galaxies were more common in the early universe than previously thought. The scientists found that nearly 30% of galaxies have a spiral structure about two billion years after the universe formed. The discovery provides a significant update to the universe’s origin story as previously told using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
For more soundbites, listen to Radio Mocha every Saturday at 7.30pm on Radju Malta and the following Monday at 9pm on Radju Malta 2 https://www.fb.com/RadioMochaMalta/.
DID YOU KNOW?
• An onion’s genome is five times larger than a human’s.
• African elephants have names for each other.
• In 2021, Dutch scientists managed to grow tear glands outside of the human body that could actually produce tears.
• ‘Wikipedia’ is a portmanteau of the Hawaiian word ‘wiki’, meaning ‘quick’, and ‘encyclopaedia’.
For more trivia, see: www.um.edu.mt/think.