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描述（由申请人提供）：本申请的目的是为耶鲁医学院对骨生物学有共同兴趣的研究人员提供一种工具，以必要的方式推动研究。该仪器是一种外围定量计算机断层扫描（pQCT），可提供小型活体动物（如小鼠和大鼠）小梁和皮质骨密度的精确和快速定量信息。耶鲁大学是一大批对骨骼生物学感兴趣的研究者的故乡，他们越来越频繁地在大鼠和基因工程小鼠的体内应用他们的方法。这些研究者要么是骨生物学领域的知名人士，要么是新入学者，他们与耶鲁大学医学院的几个院系有联系，包括细胞生物学、免疫生物学、医学、骨科外科、病理学、药理学、比较医学和整形外科。然而，尽管耶鲁大学有大量的骨骼生物学家，但它并没有配备最先进的设备来确定用作实验模型的小动物骨骼的数量和质量。因此，本应用程序的具体目的是获得pQCT，以确定经骨合成代谢或抗分解代谢药物/激素治疗的活体动物的小梁和皮质骨密度，以评估治疗效果。pQCT可以确定活小鼠的骨小梁和皮质骨密度，这些活小鼠的基因工程要么过度表达，要么缺乏在骨发育、修复或体内平衡中起核心作用的特定基因。pQCT还可以测定切除骨的骨密度。本项目的主要研究者和主要人员共同致力于进一步了解骨生物学，共同的目标是预防和修复骨质流失，治疗骨骼发育和/或质量改变的疾病。申请人提出的项目侧重于多核破骨细胞的分化和激活，多核破骨细胞是吸收骨的细胞（Horne， Kyriakides和Vignery博士）和成骨细胞，是制造骨的细胞，特别强调FGF和WNT下游信号（Schlessinger, Gundberg， Horvath和Wu博士）。此外，班尼特博士还阐述了甲状旁腺激素激活成骨细胞的机制。这些研究者共同覆盖了骨生物学的大型和互补的研究领域，将具有不同但互补的概念方法的部门聚集在一起，从而丰富了骨生物学领域。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this application is to provide Yale Medical School investigators that share an interest in bone biology with an instrument that will propel research in a necessary way. The instrument is a peripheral Quantitative Computerized Tomography (pQCT) that provides precise and rapid quantitative information about trabecular and cortical bone density in small live animals, such as mice and rats. Yale is the home of a large number of investigators who share an interest in bone biology, and who are more and more frequently translating their approach in vivo using rats and genetically engineered mice. These investigators are either well established, or new in the field of bone biology, and are associated with several departments at Yale School of Medicine, including the departments of Cell Biology, Immunobiology, Medicine, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pathology, Pharmacology, Comparative Medicine and Plastic Surgery. Yet, despite its large number of bone biologists, Yale is not equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to determine the quantity and the quality of bone in small animals that are used as experimental models. The specific aim of this application is therefore to acquire a pQCT to determine the trabecular and cortical bone density in live animals treated with a bone anabolic or anti catabolic drug/hormone, to assess the efficacy of the treatment. A pQCT can determine the trabecular and cortical bone density in live mice genetically engineered to either over express, or lack a specific gene that plays a central role in bone development, repair or homeostasis. A pQCT can also determine bone density in excised bones. The principal investigator and the key personnel of this application, together, are committed to further our understanding of the biology of bone with a common goal that is to prevent and repair bone loss, and treat diseases in which bone development and/or mass is altered. The projects proposed by the applicants focus on the differentiation and the activation of multinucleate osteoclasts, the cells that resorb bone (Drs Horne, Kyriakides and Vignery) and of osteoblasts, the cells that make bone, with specific emphasis on FGF and WNT downstream signaling (Drs Schlessinger, Gundberg, Horvath and Wu). In addition, the mechanism by which PTH activates osteoblasts is addressed by Dr Bennett. Together, these investigators cover large and complementary research fields in bone biology that bring together departments that have different, yet complementary conceptual approaches, and thereby enrich the field of bone biology.