Can weak bones be in
your genes?
John Ioannid is, MD, D Sc pioneered the research at the Stanford Prevention Research Center is
finding new ideas that lead to bone weakness and fractures due to porous bones.
The health of bones is linked to various genetic regions – at least 32 genetic
factors. He is also the C.F. Rehnborg Professor in Disease Prevention at
Stanford. Various possibilities to improve bone health are being found out via
this research regarding osteoporosis and fracture. They are also finding a way
to encode proteins that can give better strength to bones. Osteoporosis is
related to some genes and hence they are finding a way to formulate drugs to
ward off osteoporosis. In the online journal on Nature Genetics, Ioannidis has
published his research, which elaborates on the complexities of genomes. This
was published on April 15th by a team of seven eminent researchers.After
analyzing the DNA format, various research and predictions can be used to establish facts
about weak bonedensity and fractures. GWAS or the genome wide association
studies were done by 100,000 participants and carried out by 180 researchers.
It indicated that six prominent regions could show fractures by Orthopedic spine center. Still the predictable nature is
quite low. The analysis has to be comprehensive of other factors so as to
indicate the possibility of fractures and bone risk.
Genes and osteoporosis
As the overall problems were to be linked, the predictability
factor in this study had a very low rate. This did not clearly indicate the
risk factor in each patient. Each analysis had a very low contribution that did
not directly indicate the risk in each patient. The usual parameters are gender,
built as well as the weight to analyze the risk, but the study shows that many
other genetic possibilities can lead to osteoporosis. Based on earlier findings
and the new facts, a better approach can be generated for formulating
anti-osteoporosis drugs. During 2005, the GWAS were very optimistic to use the
genome factor to find relevance to diseases. But this was not true for diseases
like obesity, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. As per Orthopedic spine center, current
facts show that other factors like the environment as well as genes are also
responsible for many health problems.
Ioannidis
and future research
The focus as per Ioannid is was to conduct studies by various
teams on collective data in large numbers. Yet the findings were only a few and
at times none. It is believed that there are more than 500 variants in genes
that can predict the possibility of osteoporosis in a person. Hence, the study
has to be based on a large number e.g. Millions. The team is very much focused
and is positive that with more studies on larger data, a prediction for bone
weakness is surely possible in future as viewed by the Orthopedic spine center.
