Elderly people with osteoporosis, autoimmune inflammatory arthritis or fractures that do not heal due to brittle bones, now have hope of treatment. Researchers from the University of Birmingham, England, have identified a protein that blocks bone development and are exploring its potential as a treatment to these conditions.
This would especially be of great value in India where about one crore cases of osteoporosis are reported annually. It’s a condition in which new bone creation fails to keep up with old bone removal, and many experience no symptoms until they suffer a bone fracture that does not heal. The protein they have identified is CLEC14A, found on endothelial cells, or blood vessel cells, in bones.
This protein has been found to block the function of bone development cells, called osteoblasts. During bone development, the endothelial cells transport immature osteoblasts to sites where new bone is needed. But endothelial cells that were found to be with the protein CLEC14A, prevented the osteoblasts from maturing, prohibiting them from contributing to the formation of new bone tissue.
In their study conducted on mice, the researchers took osteoblasts from transgenic mice, some bred to produce CLEC14A, and some not. They used the osteoblasts extracted from the mice in vitro in a catalytic solution. They found that cells taken from the CLEC14A protein-free mice reached maturation after four days, while those in the presence of CLEC14A matured eight days later.
Moreover, the CLEC14A-free samples in the study saw a significant increase in bone tissue at day 18. This finding is a crucial key to conducting research on ways to reduce or remove the protein CLEC14A on the endothelial cells so that they can transport the immature osteoblasts to sites needing bone formation and contribute to faster bone tissue generation — thus ensuring faster bone healing.