Bone scan index (BSI) has been used to quantify the spread of bone metastasis and be a prognostic indicator in prostate cancer with bone metastases. However, the utility of BSI in breast cancer patients with bone metastasis has not been yet established. We retrospectively reviewed 57 female breast cancer patients with osteoblastic/lytic combined type bone metastases and treated with zoledronic ...

The skeleton is a preferred homing site for breast cancer metastasis. To date, treatment options for patients with bone metastases are mostly palliative and the disease is still incurable. Indeed, key mechanisms involved in breast cancer osteotropism are still only partially understood due to the lack of suitable animal models to mimic metastasis of human tumor cells to a human bone microenviro...

Pancytopenia is a major cause of morbidity in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), yet its cause is unclear. Normal osteoblastic cells have been shown to support hematopoiesis. To define the effects of leukemia on osteoblastic cells, we used an immunocompetent murine model of AML. Leukemic mice had inhibition of osteoblastic cells, with decreased serum levels of the bone formation marker osteocalcin. ...

Muscle cells are often exposed to bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) in pathological muscle and/or bone conditions. Because BMPs function as strong bone inducers as well as myogenesis inhibitors, certain molecules likely prevent muscle cells from converting into pathologic bone; without these molecules, de novo bone would form as observed in myositis ossificans traumatica. When C2C12 myoblasts ...

Liraglutide, a synthetic analogue of glucagon-like peptide‑1, is utilized in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Liraglutide has been previously demonstrated to prevent osteoblastic differentiation of human vascular smooth muscle cells, resulting in the slowing of arterial calcification, however, its effect on bone formation remains unclear. The present study investigated the effect of...

This study was designed to assess the effects of cold atmospheric plasma on osteoblastic differentiation in pre-osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells. Plasma was irradiated directly to a culture medium containing plated cells for 5 s or 10 s. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assay and alizarin red staining were applied to assess osteoblastic differentiation. The plasma-generated radicals were detected...

AIMS To define and group static and dynamic iliac crest histomorphometric parameters in women with established osteoporosis. METHODS Iliac crest biopsy specimens from 146 white women were sectioned undecalcified and examined using image analysis. RESULTS Five distinct groups were defined on the basis of histomorphometric changes in cell function: group 1, decreased osteoblastic and osteocla...

In bone, depletion of osteoclasts reduces bone formation in vivo, as does osteal macrophage depletion. How osteoclasts and macrophages promote the action of bone forming osteoblasts is, however, unclear. Since recruitment and differentiation of multi-potential stromal cells/mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) generates new active osteoblasts, we investigated whether human osteoclasts and macrophages (...

Solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) of the liver are rarely described; only 38 cases have been reported in literature, most of which have shown benign clinical characteristics, and only 3 of these cases exhibited malignant variants. In this study, we present a 24-year-old woman with a 1-month history of a rapidly enlarging abdominal mass and a CT showing an exophytic heterogeneous liver mass with a ...

Prostate cancers of luminal adenocarcinoma histology display a range of clinical behaviors. Although most prostate cancers are slow-growing and indolent, a proportion is aggressive, developing metastasis and resistance to androgen deprivation treatment. One hypothesis is that a portion of aggressive cancers initiate from stem-like, androgen-independent tumor-propagating cells. Here we demonstra...