Research

Maternal nutrition and bone health

The environment and nutritional status experienced during in-utero, postnatal as well as early life play an important role in bone growth and etiology of diseases such as osteoporosis. This phenomenon often referred to as “programming”, describes long-lasting changes in structure and function caused by nutritional stimuli acting at critical periods during development. Much of the work, until now has been directed at cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes, however, evidence is emerging that bone development and growth are also programmed. In particular, maternal nutrition appears to be important in determining skeletal size at maturity. Our research aim here is to understand the role maternal nutrition plays in the programming of the adult skeleton.

Epigenetic regulation of bone metabolism

Modeling and remodeling are the processes by which adult skeleton attain and maintain their final shape and architecture. While bone modeling is prominent during the periods of growth, bone remodeling dominates in adulthood. Both the processes involve a fine balance between bone-forming osteoblast and bone-resorbing osteoclast cells. Osteoblasts and osteoclasts are bone-specific cell types derived from precursors originating in the bone marrow. The precursors of osteoblasts are bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells which can also differentiate into stromal cells, chondrocytes, myoblasts, and adipocytes. Due to their action as bone-forming cells, osteoblasts are an enticing target for treating bone loss. For this reason, our lab is interested in studying mechanisms that regulate their transcriptional activities, particularly, the epigenetic changes happening at key osteogenic genes.

Nutritional modulators of bone remodeling

Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease, which occurs due to a shift in bone remodeling towards more bone resorption than bone formation. One of the focuses of our lab is to identify and study the molecular mechanism of potential bone-forming, osteogenic nutraceutical molecules.