Osteoporosis

摘要

Fractures related to osteoporosis occur in about 150 000 people annually in the United Kingdom and account for over ￡750m in healthcare costs. As the age of the population increases, osteoporotic fractures will become even more common unless we can develop better methods of identifying people who are at high risk of the disease before fractures have occurred, or have developed more effective ways of reversing bone loss in patients with established osteoporosis. In this article I review the importance of genetic factors in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis and discuss the molecular genetic approaches that are being used to define the genes involved. I also describe some recent advances in understanding the cellular and molecular basis of bone remodelling and suggest how this knowledge might impact on the development of new drug treatments for osteoporosis.