Effect of lipid mediators and dietary fats in bone remodelling

骨质疏松症是一个主要的公共卫生问题，直接影响到约10%的人口，目前约有200万澳大利亚人。随着人口老龄化，预计在未来20年，这一比例将增加到13%以上。当考虑到目前每年因骨质疏松性骨折而导致的直接医院和住院护理费用接近20亿美元时，容易应用于老年人群的用于增加骨强度的低成本干预措施在澳大利亚具有巨大的健康益处潜力。因此，这项研究将检查饮食中的欧米茄-3脂肪，在鱼和鱼油中发现的那种，对骨代谢生物学和骨强度的影响。研究结果将提供信息，可用于开发简单的药物或饮食策略，用于大规模使用，以增加老年人群的骨量和强度。这项研究的优势来自于以下方面的研究专门知识的结合：（a）膳食脂肪;（B）骨细胞的分子生物学;（c）适于膳食干预的骨代谢动物模型。这种结合是独特的，但建立在迄今为止存在于单独的研究范式中的完善的系统之上。首席研究员在开发富含omega-3脂肪的饮食方面具有相当丰富的经验，这些饮食是实用的，适合长期日常使用。这大大增加了结果的潜在意义，因为如果观察到欧米茄-3脂肪的有利作用并对其机制进行表征，则结果可以迅速转化为大规模临床应用。

Osteoporosis in a major public health problem which directly affects about 10% of the population, which is currently around 2 million Australians. With aging of the population, it is projected that this proportion will increase to more than 13% over the next 20 years. When it is considered that the direct hospital and residential care costs attributable to osteoporotic fractures currently approaches $2 billion per annum, low-cost interventions for increasing bone strength which are easily applied to the elderly population have enormous potential for health benefits in Australia. Thus study will examine the effects of dietary omega-3 fats, of the kind found in fish and fish oil, on the biology of bone metabolism and on bone strength. The results will provide information which may be used in developing simple drug or dietary strategies for large-scale use for increasing bone mass and strength in the elderly population. A strength of the study arises from the combination of research expertise in (a) dietary fats, and (b) molecular biology of bone cells, and (c) animal models of bone metabolism which are amenable to dietary interventions. This combination is unique, but builds on well established systems which hitherto have existed in separate research paradigms. The Chief Investigator has considerable experience in development of diets enriched in omega-3 fats which are practical and suitable for daily use on a long-term basis. This adds considerably to the potential significance of the outcomes because, if favourable effects of omega-3 fats are observed and are characterised with regard to mechanisms, the results can be rapidly translated into large-scale clinical use.