BONE STRUCTURE AND STRENGTH IN DIFFERENT RACIAL GROUPS

骨质疏松症是最常见和最严重的年龄相关的疾病之一， 疾病 在绝经后的几年里， 每年造成超过20万例髋部骨折 约 这些患者中有24，000人在骨折事件发生后3个月内死亡。 另有300多万人因饥饿而遭受相当大的痛苦和虚弱。 手腕和脊椎骨折 尽管进行了深入的研究， 骨质疏松症仍然困扰着我们，我们还没有令人满意的治疗方法。 骨质疏松症的易感性存在明显的种族差异。 白人对这种疾病非常敏感，而黑人几乎 完全免疫。 这些种族差异的原因尚不清楚 了解并必须掌握致病机制的重要线索 是疾病的根源 普遍的解释是黑人 骨骼质量比白人大，但这一点的科学依据是， 信仰是软弱的。 虽然有一些数据支持这一结论， 有等量的数据表明，相反的是， 案子 然而，更重要的是，骨量不是唯一的，也可能不是 甚至是骨骼强度的主要决定因素。 令人惊讶的是， 在一项研究中， 种族群体。 也没有人试图研究 对骨骼机械性能的影响。 这个的主要目标 研究项目是为了清楚地了解为什么这个种族 通过对髂嵴进行相关研究， 脊椎骨结构和强度作为年龄和性别的函数 与白色人的对比。 将对骨结构进行定量评估 使用成熟的、强大的骨组织形态计量学技术。 骨小梁的机械性能将使用 材料测试系统，并将有关的 组织形态测定确定的结构参数。 通过结合这些技术，拟议的研究将产生显着的 关于为什么白人是重要而有趣的问题的新信息 比黑人更容易患骨质疏松症，此外， 关于标准髂动脉活检部位的代表性的有价值信息 在静态组织形态测量方面， 和机械强度。

Osteoporosis is one of the most common and serious of the age-related diseases. Primarily affecting women in their post menopausal years, it is responsible for more than 200,000 hip fractures annually. Approximately 24,000 of these patients die within 3 months of the fracture incident. Over 3 million others suffer considerable pain and debility as a result of wrist and spine fractures. Despite an intensive research effort, the cause of osteoporosis still eludes us and we do not yet have satisfactory cures. There are marked racial differences in the susceptibility to osteoporosis. Whites are highly susceptible to the disease, whereas blacks are almost totally immune. The reasons for these racial differences are not clearly understood and must hold important clues to the pathogenetic mechanism(s) underlying the disease. The popular explanation is that black people have a greater skeletal mass than whites, but the scientific basis for this belief is weak. While there are some data to support this conclusion, there is an equal amount of data which suggests that the opposite is the case. However, more importantly, bone mass is not the only, and may not even be the main determinant of bone strength. Surprisingly, there has not been one study in which bone structure has been compared amongst different racial groups. Neither have there been any attempts to study the effect of race on the mechanical properties of bone. The primary goal of this research project is to gain a clear understanding of why this racial difference exists by performing a correlative study of iliac crest and vertebral bone structure and strength as functions of age and sex in black versus white people. The bone structure will be assessed quantitatively using the well-established, powerful technique of bone histomorphometry. The mechanical properties of trabecular bone will be characterized using a materials testing system and will be related to the histomorphometrically-determined structural parameters. By combining these techniques, the proposed study will generate significant new information on the important and intriguing question of why whites are more susceptible to osteoporosis than blacks and, in addition, will provide valuable information on how representative the standard iliac biopsy site is of the axial skeleton both in terms of static histomorphometric measures and mechanical strength.