Is periosteal bone formation responsible for sexual dimorphism in bone fragility

Funded Activity Summary

Men and women sustain fractures as they age because their bones become fragile. Women sustain fractures more often than men. Bone thinning occurs in both sexes but it is usually believed that this thinning or loss of bone is greater in women than men. We have evidence to suggest that this may not be correct. In fact, it is likely that men and women lose a similar amount of bone, about half what they started with, but during ageing, men lay down more bone on the outside surface of the bone than women compensating for the similar amount lost on the inside of the bone. We also have evidence to suggest than men and women who get spine fractures do so because the process of laying down bone may fail to occur normally. We will study these processes of bone loss inside the bone and bone gain outside the bone to try to better understand why bones become weak. We will measure the bone size and its density in healthy men and women and patients with fractures to determine how the increasing size of the bone produced by laying down bone on its outside helps to keep it strong and to preserve the bone that would otherwise be lost if it didn't occur or if a disease developed that might reduce the compensatory

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2002

End Date: 01-01-2004

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $316,320.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Nutritional science

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Bone Formation | Bone Fragility | Bone Loss | Bone Size and Volumetric Density | Gender Differences | Osteoporosis | Pathogenesis of Osteoporosis and Fractures

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