Building new bone tissue isn’t so easy for our bodies to do when we reach our 50s, so bone wellness experts are continually researching proteins to create new medications that treat brittle bones. Now researchers in Hong Kong have found a molecule linked to a herbal plant that may affect how our body produces cells.
Making new bones
Cell renewal occurs throughout our body all the time, and our skeleton is undergoing this process – called remodelling – constantly. There are two main molecules in our body driving this natural process, osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Thanks to osteoblasts our bones are renewed with strong, healthy cells necessary for our wellbeing. Osteoclasts also have an important job, as they are responsible for getting rid of old cells, which is called resorption. This process works perfectly until we reach our mid-50s, where some of us start to lose too many bone cells possibly leading to osteoporosis. When this happens, bone health experts try and preserve our bone tissues with medicines that either inhibit the actions of osteoclasts allowing new bone cells to form or by stimulating osteoblasts, which has the same effect.
Why molecules matter
The scientific team from Hong Kong Baptist University found that a molecule – called miR-214 – affects genes in a way that reduces the number of bone cells our body makes. Researchers analysed the bone from older people who had suffered fractures, finding that they had higher than average amounts of the compound in tissue. This molecule can be found in herbal plants suggesting that the plants could be further investigated to reveal more secrets how these chemicals impact bone formation. Researchers on the project believe investigating sources of the molecule could give rise to new medications. When this compound is elevated in our bodies it has also been linked to tumours and how they spread through our bodies, indicating that research could also be useful to cancer sufferers.
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