A comprehensive overview on osteoporosis and its risk factors

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a bone disorder with remarkable changes in bone biologic material and consequent bone structural distraction, affecting millions of people around the world from different ethnic groups. Bone fragility is the worse outcome of the disease, which needs long term therapy and medical management, especially in the elderly. Many involved genes including environmental factors have been introduced as the disease risk factors so far, of which genes should be considered as effective early diagnosis biomarkers, especially for the individuals from high-risk families. In this review, a number of important criteria involved in osteoporosis are addressed and discussed.

Keywords: BMD; HPT; atherosclerosis; bone and hip fractures; bone mineral density; hyperparathyroidism.

Figure 1

Common osteoporosis risk factors involved in pathways associated with bone formation and osteoporotic fractures. Note: RA, smoking, glucocorticoids, diabetes mellitus and tumors, the most common risk factors, negatively control the bone organization pathway, resulting in osteoporotic fractures. Abbreviations: IL, interleukin; M-CSF, macrophage colony stimulating factor; OPG, osteoprotegerin; PPARγ, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ; PTH, parathyroid hormone; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; RANKL, RANK with its ligand; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; DM, diabetes mellitus; AP2, adipocyte fatty acid binding protein 2; RANK, receptor activator of nuclear factor κ.