Immune regulation of bones
Short description
The bone and the immune system are closely linked together. During autoimmune activation, when the immune system is constantly active, you get a reduction of bone mineral density which can lead to fractures. Fractures lead to reduced mobility, increased risk of other diseases, and premature death. Cytokines that drive the immune system also affect bone-degrading cells, osteoclasts. However, this can not explain the entire bone loss in, for example, rheumatoid arthritis and therefore we look further at antibodies' direct stimulation of bone and whether this can be regulated by the female sex hormone, estrogen. Furthermore, we also want to investigate how the lack of the immune system affects bone density and the risk of fractures in bone marrow transplantation (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation). With this knowledge, we want to be a
Main research projects
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) leads not only to chronic joint inflammation but also osteoporosis. This is dependent on cytokines, but recently I and others have shown that autoantibodies can also directly stimulate bone loss. The pathogenesis of antibodies is regulated by how much sugar moieties are attached, a high degree of sugar more difficult to activate Fc gamma receptors. Recently, I showed that estrogen affects these sugar moieties. Furthermore, we have also shown that activated IgG can directly stimulate osteoclasts. Therefore, we now want to understand more about the regulation of sugar moieties and these meanings mainly for bones but also for immune regulation.
Group members working on the project:
Also, the absence of immune activation from bone marrow in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has an acute as well as a long-lasting effect on the bone. What this is due to is unclear today, but it is not surprising that the absence of not only bone marrow cells but also all proteins in bone marrow affects bones. We and others have previously shown that bone marrow transplantation lowers bone mineral density and this is also described in patients but no mechanisms are described. This work is carried out in a collaboration with Hematology, where in parallel with studies in experimental animals we examine patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in HEMOS.
Group members working on the project:
