Researchers from UL FFA published a study on the relevance of epigenetics for bone health in a prominent journal

Research group from UL FFA, Department of Clinical Biochemistry (Peter Vrtačnik, Janja Zupan, Vid Mlakar, Tilen Kranjc, Janja Marc, Barbara Kern &  Barbara Ostanek) published their study on two age-related diseases, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis in a well-established journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers focused on the interaction between epigenetic mechanisms and pathological factors often present in bone tissue, e.g. oxidative stress and hypoxia. They first performed a screening step using a cell-based model to narrow down the number of candidate genes, followed by a validation step on bone tissue samples collected from patients with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis to confirm their involvement in the pathogenesis of these two diseases. They also looked carefully at the molecular mechanism driving the identified changes.

This study is one of the first to show the association between epigenetic enzymes and the quality and quantity of bone tissue.

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-34255-4