Science / Medicine : 3 Genes Linked to Bones Found

Pennsylvania researchers announced last week that they had located three genes involved in bone formation, a step that should provide new insights into bone diseases like osteoporosis. The research, published in the journal Genomics, began to explore the genetic link between proteins involved in bone growth and a disease called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva , or FOB.

The rare degenerative bone disease causes bone to form in tissues, eventually leaving patients painfully frozen in an extra skeleton of bone. There is no known treatment for the approximately 600 patients nationwide with FOB.

The researchers found evidence that a gene called BMP1 was located on chromosome 8, another, called BMP2A, on chromosome 20 and the third, BMP3, on chromosome 4. BMP stands for bone morphogenetic protein. There are believed to be a total of seven genes involved in bone growth and healing. Understanding how such genes work could provide insights into more common diseases, such as osteoporosis, which causes bones to become brittle.

One of the newly discovered genes also appears to be involved in a disorder called completinogenesis imperfecta , in which deformities occur in developing teeth, resulting in ill-formed teeth in adults.