Development of human osteogenic cell lines
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Citation
Abstract
Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone characterized by reduced bone mass and deteriorated bone tissue. A silent disease, most patients are unaware that they have osteoporosis until they suffer a fracture. What causes osteoporosis is an imbalance between the rates of resorption and development of the bone’s remodeling cycle, in which the rate of resorption is much higher. This imbalance could be a result of many factors, but the main causes of osteoporosis are usually low estrogen levels due to aging, low Vitamin D levels and hyperparathyroidism. Multiple treatments have been developed that target osteoporosis at specific parts of the bone remodeling cycle. In order to contribute to the development of drugs and other treatments for bone diseases like osteoporosis, osteogenic cell models are used to better understand bone cell biology. Currently, the most commonly used models are murine and human cell line and primary cell cultures. Human cell lines however have all been derived from osteosarcomas having abnormal karyotypes and growth control. Development of a nonmalignant human osteogenic cell line would prove to be a major advance in serving as a more accurate model for the study of osteogenic cells. Development of human osteogenic cell lines is a long and multi-step process with multiple modifications that need to be made to select out these cells. This thesis describes the initial steps that were made in the generation of a human osteogenic cell line and their initial characterization.