#osteoclasts

[bpod-bpod]

Monocyte, Microlith, Mineral?

Every breath can be a struggle if you have the rare lung disease pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis. It’s caused by a faulty protein in the membranes of cells that line alveoli, tiny air sacs that fill your lungs. This causes mineral structures called hydroxyapatite microliths to form inside alveoli. Researchers now investigate this process by analysing RNA – a marker for gene activity – in lung tissue from human patients and a mouse model of the disease. Looking at immune cells called monocytes, which can develop into bone-degrading cells called osteoclasts, the team found that osteoclast-related genes were activated in alveolar monocytes. They also found that microliths, pictured using scanning electron microscopy at different resolutions in human (top) and mouse (bottom) lung tissue, contained osteoclast enzymes. This suggests that in response to microliths forming, osteoclast-like cells kickstart into action. This may present a new research avenue for pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis therapies.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Image adapted from work by Yasuaki Uehara and colleagues

Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, March 2023

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[medicomunicare]

About blasts, clasts and receptors: PT H in the bone cannot be erased, yet GPRC5 is not tALK-3 with other signals

Osteoporosis is a skeletal condition that leads to the weakening of bones, making them porous, fragile, and prone to breakage. A whopping 8.9 million fractures are caused by osteoporosis annually. The aging population is the most vulnerable to primary osteoporosis, given, their frailty, and often, requires long-term therapy and support. Advances in healthcare and the corresponding rise in the…

[foolishfoolsgold]

Ok this was just gonna be a cell type showcase but I think I’m keeping these guys as OCs lol. Not too sure how I feel abt the outfit, I tried to go with “liver colors” and got this. Might design some more in the future

I’m calling them JT-4845 (she/her for each head, they/them for the whole cell). The left one is a waitress and the right one is a freelance DJ for parties, so they’re always running around from place to place to go do stuff, showing up to gigs in the restaurant uniform, and just being annoying to each other. For example:

Left: “and would you like to try today’s special?”

Right: *pretending to mind control the customer* “oOOOOOoooOOO, you want to try the speciaaaaalllll!”

[Start ID: Colored and shaded digital drawing of a two-headed cell (hepatocyte) on a grey background. They have a brown membrane and bright salmon patterns. Each head has dark hair/flagella with blonde highlights, but the left head’s is straight and parted to the side, were the right head’s is in messy dreadlocks. Both heads have brown eyes, and the left one has earrings, eyebrow piercings and straight stripes, where the right one has no piercings, headphones around her neck, and more splotchy patterns. Their shared body is wearing a dark read suit with a floppy bow tie. The right hand is making a “rock on!” Gesture, and the left is holding a notepad. They have a single red tail with dorsal lobes along its length. Notes talk about how hepatocytes have a close relationship with immune cells, and how they can have either one or two nuclei/heads. Binucleated cells are psychologically and legally two different people, and also that the tail can secrete detoxifying chemicals. End ID.]

[thestorybotsfanlol]

Phagocytes

Osteoclast looks so cursed wtf😭

[aturinfortheworse]

Learning about hormones is funny because they're all named after what they do (like "growth hormone." guess what that fucker does) so it should be easy to remember them, except that most of them have such specific niche jobs that's actually no help at all. Oh yeah sure "lutenizing hormone" I totally know what that means and what it does. I fucking love to lutenize. Catch me out here lutenizing all day long with my buddy Lutenizing Hormone.

[a-simple-bacterium]

[not-poignant]

My knee is shot to hell and I think the next step before surgery might be cortisone injections.

But on the journey to like...keeping my ability to walk (though I've lost the ability to hike and/or walk more than 10 minutes which blows, I'm hoping to get it back still), my physiotherapist, who is also a personal trainer, got me doing a whole bunch of upper body stuff, which I cringed at and was like 'nooooooo' and just 'I'm gonna be so bad at thissss'

But it ended with me actually really enjoying it and now I bench press (don't ask me how much, it's a pitiful amount, my arms are as strong as limp noodles and i'm not not interested in 'how much can you do i bet i'm better at it than you are' like yes you are yes you are now go away) and I look forward to my arm workouts the most out of anything I do.

My knee's still an absolute shitweasel though.

[jppres]

Effect of cocoa administration during orthodontic tooth movement on RUNX2, calcium levels, and osteoclast bone-resorbing activity in rats

J. Pharm. Pharmacogn. Res., vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 857-864, September-October 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56499/jppres22.1434_10.5.857 Ananto Ali Alhasyimi*, Pinandi Sri Pudyani Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. *E-mail: anantoali@ugm.ac.id Abstract Context: Cocoa contains caffeine-rich methylxanthine, which promotes accelerated orthodontic…

[mindblowingscience]

Bone is maintained via a delicate balance between formation and resorption, and its imbalance leads to bone related diseases like osteoporosis, rheumatism and periodontitis. Researchers led by Osaka University have revealed that proteins named Rab32 and Rab38 play pivotal roles in bone resorption in osteoclasts. These proteins are also crucial for pigmentation of hair and skin. The researchers have published two articles, "Characterization of Rab32- and Rab38-positive lysosome-related organelles in osteoclasts and macrophages" in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and "Rab32 and Rab38 maintain bone homeostasis by regulating intracellular traffic in osteoclasts" in Cell Structure and Function.

Continue Reading

[heavenslittlemachine]

i would love to be an osteoclast i think i would be really really good at secreting corrosive fluids for a single demo job and then killing myself

[solomonara]

Game: 10 first lines challenge

Thanks for the tag @stevieraebarnes! Let's see if my first lines can hold a candle to your absolute bangers.

Rules: Share the first line of your last ten published works or as many as you are able to and see if there are any patterns!

1. Investigator: The crash of shattering glass, and a lot of it, startled the pleasant hum of socialite conversation into hiding.

2. For Good: Some days, Link wonders how they got so lucky.

3. Here, After: If asked, Sidon would not be able to say truly when it began.

4. The Cross Purposes Job: "Well, Mr. Jeffries," Sophie – or rather, Ludmila Popova, official representative of a wealthy overseas tech consortium that was definitely not a thinly veiled front for any shady Eastern European government, no matter how much they were funded like one, wink nudge – said with a charming smile.

5. Scarf: "Emma. What is that?" Georgia asked, stopping immediately inside the door to their apartment.

6. Fever Reducer: Bruce stared at the nearly empty shelf in the breakfast aisle, despairing.

7. Osteoclast: Dick knew, even before he was fully awake, that he wasn't going to enjoy what he discovered when he opened his eyes.

8. Per Aspera: Jason Todd was bleeding.

9. Looked After: Make sure he's looked after.

10. The Damned Prince's Bodyguard: The Damned Prince of Gotham surveyed his domain with a great deal of satisfaction and a very small amount of champagne.

Well, I don't know. Most of these introduce the main characters (but not Looked After or Investigator). Most of these ask a question or imply one (but not For Good or, again, Looked After.) And what was I thinking with The Cross Purposes Job. That's so many words... Maybe I should be looking at second lines XD

Hey @elwon, @dragonsorceress22, @bitterleafs, @burntheupholstery, @unicorncoalition you want to give it a whirl?

This invitation is also open to anyone who is reading it. Yes you! And tag me when you do it, I want to read your first lines (even you, stranger.)

[radioactiveradley]

It’s SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS MONTH

So let’s talk about yer bones! Yeah, that’s right, Captian Holt. I said –

An adult has (roughly) 206 bones (I say ‘roughly’! You can have non-pathological anatomical variation, such as lumbarised sacral vertebrae (an extra bone in your back) or accessory sesamoids like the flabella (a little bone at the back of the knee!))

A newborn has (roughly) 300 bones

That's a big difference! Almost 100 bones of difference! Where do they go?

Well, you see - as you get older, every time you come into the hospital we steal more of your bones...

Just kidding.

...Or am I

As an embryo, your skeleton is completely composed of cartilage. This gradually ossifies as you age, until, as an adult, you have a full skeleton, with only the interactive portions of joints being capped with hyaline cartilage.

[Paediatric normal whole leg radiograph, showing epiphyseal plates around the head of the femur, the femoral condyles, the proximal tibia, the distal tibia and the lateral malleoli that can mimic fractures. Courtesy of radiopaedia]

See all those weird blobs? Those are bones in the process of fusing together! The transverse lines that could be mistaken for fractures are actually epiphyseal plates – hyaline cartilage bridges between the shaft of a bone and what will become its tip, which don't attenuate x-rays, and thus appear black on our radiographs! This is where bone growth occurs - the cartilage forms a sort of template matrix that then ossifies into bone.

Compare our paediatric radiograph to the AP knee radiographs of an adult with no visible pathology:

[Adult normal AP knee radiographs, showing fully fused bones. Courtesy of radiopaedia]

See how all those ragged pieces have joined up? That’s endochondral ossification, BABY!

This is how we can figure out the age of a paediatric service user from their bones! Certain bones form at different times.

Let’s check out the carpal bones – all those fiddly little bones in your wrist! Anyone who’s binged Hatecrimes MD – sorry, House MD as often as I have will know the classic acronym for remembering the names of these bones. Moving thumb side to pinkie side, we have…

Scared (Scaphoid - red)

Lovers (Lunate - dark blue)

Hate (Hamate - green)

To (Triquetrum - yellow)

Try (Trapezium - orange)

The (Trapezoid - light blue)

Coolest (Capitate - purple)

Positions (Pisiform - pink)

[Normal adult wrist radiograph, shown with and without coloured carpal bones. Courtesy of radiopaedia.]

But did you know that these bones form at different times?

The Capitate ossifies at 1-3 months

The Hamate ossifies at 2-4 months

The Triquetrum ossifies at 2-3 years

The Lunate ossifies at 2-4 years

The Scaphoid, Trapezium and Trapezoid ossify at 4-6 years

And the Pisiform ossifies at 8-12 years

So, I can look at this picture, and tell you that this child is approximately 3 years old, because their Capitate and Hamate have ossified, and their Triquetrum is just visible, starting to ossify below the thumb (circled!)

[Normal wrist radiograph of a paediatric patient, triquetral ossification centre circled. Courtesy of Radiopaedia.]

Your bones continue to form and fuse until you reach about 25! Your olecranon (the bump of your elbow) starts to ossify at 6-11 years, and fuses at 13-16 years! We can look at the base of your fifth metatarsal to age afab folks who are approx. 10 and amab folks who are approx. 12, as this bone fuses in the 2-4 years following these ages! The medial end of the clavicle can be used to assess your age from approximately 18-22, and your facial bones continue to ossify into adulthood! How cool is that?

If you’re over 25, fret not – there’s still plenty of funky stuff happening to your bones. But we’ll get into all of that next time, when we take a look at the function of osteoblasts and osteoclasts and explore all the cool little jobs that your bones perform within your body - it's more than you might think! So, tune in next time for more Bone facts...

And thank you for reading!

[thestorybotsfanlol]

Bone Cells

I will try to draw the other types of cells without having an artblock

[stars-and-lines]

Progress Log 40

A good morning to you all! I hope you've slept well, invigorated and ready to face the day. 

I have stayed up into the long hours of the morning, meticulously initiating the first - and perhaps the most complex - phase of my next project. The Doctor had the right idea, of course, with animals and machines. But I’m going about it the other way around.��

… oh, I can indulge in a bit of bragging! I’m quite pleased with the solution I’ve developed for this concept. I will give you all a little biology lesson. 

In osteology, there are cells that are responsible for the growth of bones: osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Bones do not grow the way that other tissues in the body do: instead of simply replicating, osteoclasts work to dissolve and break down the material, while osteoblasts rebuild and remodel them. Over time, almost a hundred percent of your skeleton will be refreshed with new cells. 

Now, imagine if you will, a metal that could replicate itself. By working on a microscopic level, one in theory could craft an artificial batch of osteoclasts and osteoblasts. These could then be integrated into a subject’s skeletal system, upon which the conversion would take place. One would even have total control over the speed of the process, the density to completion, or even to specify certain areas of effect.

If only such a replicating metal existed! And if only I had access to blueprints, construction, and even a small sample on hand! 

Serendipitous indeed. It has taken a little bit of reverse engineering and a dash of creativity, along with cloning samples for testing, as the last thing I want is to install genetically modified cells on my subjects proper. It would be a waste to destroy something so valuable by taking pointless chances, but through careful application, my subjects have taken to it quite well. It has zero recovery period to account for, and I can continue development while the process is underway.

I suppose that Metal Virus was useful for something, after all. 

Sincerely yours, 

⭐️ Doctor Starline

[a-simple-bacterium]

So like, everything in the body is made out of basically the same stuff right? So when something breaks and gets destroyed, who clears the rubble? Where does it go? Does a phagocyte eat it? Do you sometimes take a walk and Ms Macrophage is trying to gnaw on conk crete? Has a neutrophil eaten a door? So many questions

[i-eat-worlds]

Battle of The Bones