Robert A. Nissenson, PhD
Senior Research Career Scientist, Medical Research Service, SFVAMC
Professor of Medicine and Physiology, UCSF
Email: robert.nissenson@ucsf.edu
Novel Approaches to Stimulating Bone Formation
Dr. Nissenson and his colleagues are identifying new pathways to activate osteoblasts - the cells that make new bone - in order to more effectively treat osteoporosis (loss of bone density with age) and to accelerate fracture repair. They have found that activation of one of these pathways results in a massive increase in bone formation and in the size of bones. Growing bones are most sensitive to activation of this pathway, but adult bone also displays a marked increase in size and bone mass. Pharmacological agents that target this pathway may prove to be useful in the treatment of osteoporosis and in promoting bone formation during fracture repair.
Hsiao EC, Boudignon BM, Chang WC, Bencsik M, Peng J, Nguyen T, Manalac C, Halloran BP, Conklin BR, Nissenson RA. 2008. Osteoblast expression of an engineered Gs-coupled receptor dramatically increases bone mass. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:1209-1214.
Peng J, Bencsik M, Louie A, Lu W, Millard S, Nguyen P, Burghardt A, Majumdar S, Wronski TJ, Halloran B, Conklin BR, Nissenson RA. 2008. Conditional expression of a Gi-coupled receptor in osteoblasts results in trabecular osteopenia. Endocrinology 149:1329-1337.
