Research

The Center for Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases

The Center for Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is a unique academic research facility, dedicated to the study of osteoporosis and its treatment. It is one of the largest research units of its kind in the United States, with several clinical programs and a staff of approximately 40 scientists.

UAMS established the division in 1994 as the result of extensive planning and support of by the College of Medicine at UAMS and by the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. The center is internationally recognized as a center of excellence and a unique resource. The faculty of the center has a combined research experience of almost 200 years, has a collective record of more than 1,000 publications, and it represents a highly synergistic team with complimentary expertise in molecular and cellular biology, molecular genetics, the biology of bone as a tissue, and the clinical diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis. The research of the center is supported by numerous grants from the State of Arkansas, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the pharmaceutical industry.

The focus of the research program is to improve the understanding of the pathophysiology of the bone fragility syndrome of osteoporosis, and develop optimal therapies for its treatment. Through interrelated projects supported by shared cores, the investigators of the center work to elucidate the cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms that underlie loss of bone, and examine the role of osteocytes in the preservation of bone integrity and strength. The central research theme is that loss of bone in the adult skeleton is mainly the result of disordered control of cell number. More specifically, there are either too many osteoclasts relative to the need for bone remodeling, or too few osteoblasts relative to the need created by bone resorption. Malfunction of individual cells is usually less important. This concept has been extended in three directions. First, the importance of deficient cell number applies also to the osteocyte, the third type of bone cell, and thereby to bone quality and strength. Second, cell death is as important as cell birth in determining the number of all three cell types. And third, existing drugs, including hormones and bisphosphonates, work at least in part by regulating the rate of cell death; and new and improved drugs can be developed by manipulating this process.