Multiple verification in computational modeling of bone pathologies

We introduce a model checking approach to diagnose the emerging of bone pathologies. The implementation of a new model of bone remodeling in PRISM has led to an interesting characterization of osteoporosis as a defective bone remodeling dynamics with respect to other bone pathologies. Our approach allows to derive three types of model checking-based diagnostic estimators. The first diagnostic measure focuses on the level of bone mineral density, which is currently used in medical practice. In addition, we have introduced a novel diagnostic estimator which uses the full patient clinical record, here simulated using the modeling framework. This estimator detects rapid (months) negative changes in bone mineral density. Independently of the actual bone mineral density, when the decrease occurs rapidly it is important to alarm the patient and monitor him/her more closely to detect insurgence of other bone co-morbidities. A third estimator takes into account the variance of the bone density, which could address the investigation of metabolic syndromes, diabetes and cancer. Our implementation could make use of different logical combinations of these statistical estimators and could incorporate other biomarkers for other systemic co-morbidities (for example diabetes and thalassemia). We are delighted to report that the combination of stochastic modeling with formal methods motivate new diagnostic framework for complex pathologies. In particular our approach takes into consideration important properties of biosystems such as multiscale and self-adaptiveness. The multi-diagnosis could be further expanded, inching towards the complexity of human diseases. Finally, we briefly introduce self-adaptiveness in formal methods which is a key property in the regulative mechanisms of biological systems and well known in other mathematical and engineering areas.Comment: In Proceedings CompMod 2011, arXiv:1109.104

Variation in The Vitamin D Receptor Gene is Associated With Multiple Sclerosis in an Australian Population

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) resulting in accumulating neurological disability. The disorder is more prevalent at higher latitudes. To investigate VDR gene variation using three intragenic restriction fragment length polymorphisms (Apa I, Taq I and Fok I) in an Australian MS case-control population, one hundred and four Australian MS patients were studied with patients classified clinically as Relapsing Remitting MS (RR-MS), Secondary Progressive MS (SP-MS) or Primary Progressive MS (PP-MS). Also, 104 age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched controls were investigated as a comparative group. Our results show a significant difference of genotype distribution frequency between the case and control groups for the functional exon 9 VDR marker Taq I (p_Gen = 0.016) and interestingly, a stronger difference for the allelic frequency (p_All = 0.0072). The Apa I alleles were also found to be associated with MS (p_All = 0.04) but genotype frequencies were not significantly different from controls (p_Gen = 0.1). The Taq and Apa variants are in very strong and significant linkage disequilibrium (D' = 0.96, P < 0.0001). The genotypic associations are strongest for the progressive forms of MS (SP-MS and PP-MS). Our results support a role for the VDR gene increasing

Hormones and genes of importance in bone physiology and their influence on bone mineralization and growth in Turner Syndrome

This mini review summarizes papers presented in a Joint Symposium between the Bone, Growth Plate and Turner Syndrome Working Groups of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) that was held on September 9, 2009, in New York.The program had been composed to give an update on hormones and genes of importance in bone physiology and their influence on bone mineralization and growth in Turner syndrome. This paper summarizes the data and highlights the main topics and discussions related to each presentation

Angiogenic and Osteogenic Potential of Bone Repair Cells for Craniofacial Regeneration

There has been increased interest in the therapeutic potential of bone marrow derived cells for tissue engineering applications. Bone repair cells (BRCs) represent a unique cell population generated via an ex vivo, closed-system, automated cell expansion process, to drive the propagation of highly osteogenic and angiogenic cells for bone engineering applications. The aims of this study were (1) to evaluate the in vitro osteogenic and angiogenic potential of BRCs, and (2) to evaluate the bone and vascular regenerative potential of BRCs in a craniofacial clinical application. BRCs were produced from bone marrow aspirates and their phenotypes and multipotent potential characterized. Flow cytometry demonstrated that BRCs were enriched for mesenchymal and vascular phenotypes. Alkaline phosphatase and von Kossa staining were performed to assess osteogenic differentiation, and reverse transcriptase?polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression levels of bone specific factors. Angiogenic differentiation was determined through in vitro formation of tube-like structures and fluorescent labeling of endothelial cells. Finally, 6 weeks after BRC transplantation into a human jawbone defect, a biopsy of the regenerated site revealed highly vascularized, mineralized bone tissue formation. Taken together, these data provide evidence for the multilineage and clinical potential of BRCs for craniofacial regeneration.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/85090/1/ten_tea_2010_0079.pd