Risk Factors for Low Bone Mineral Density Determined in Patients in a General Practice Setting

Osteoporosis increases the risk of bone fractures. It is diagnosed based on an individual’s bone mineral density (BMD) or a fracture without trauma. BMD is usually measured by the dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) method. Here we investigated factors for the earliest possible prediction of decreased BMD by examining the relationships between patients’ BMD values and changes in the patients’ physical and laboratory values. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 149 patients who visited our department in 2014-2015 for a variety of reasons and underwent an area BMD examination by DXA. We analyzed the relationships between decreasing BMD and the patients’ gender, age, body mass index (BMI), medical background, hemoglobin, electrolytes, and thyroid function. Thirty-nine of the patients were diagnosed with osteoporosis based on their T-scores. An adjusted analysis showed that female gender, aging, and increased serum calcium level were significantly related to decreasing femoral BMD, whereas high BMI was associated with an increase in femoral BMD. Collectively the results indicate that for the early detection of low BMD, it is important for general-practice physicians to consider conducting a BMD checkup when treating female and elderly patients with a low BMI and/or elevated serum calcium level

Identification of the recognition sequence and target proteins for DJ-1 protease

DJ-1, the product of familial Parkinson's disease gene and an oncogene, is a cysteine protease which plays a role in anti-oxidative stress reaction. In this study, we identified the recognition sequence for DJ-1 protease by using recombinant DJ-1 and a peptide library. Protease activity of DJ-1 lacking C-terminal alpha-helix (DJ-1 Delta H9) was stronger than that of full-sized DJ-1, and the most susceptible sequence digested by DJ-1 Delta H9 was valine-lysine-valine-alanine (VKVA) under the optimal conditions of pH 5.5 and 0 mM NaCl. Divalent ions, especially Cu2+, were inhibitory to DJ-1's protease activity. c-abl oncogene 1 product (ABL1) and kinesin family member 1B (KIF1B) containing VKVA were digested by DJ-1 Delta H9. Structured summary of protein interactions: DJ-1 cleaves IUF1B by enzymatic study (View interaction) DJ-1 cleaves ABLI by enzymatic study (View interaction) (C) 2013 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved