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Characteristics of local human skeleton responses to microgravity and drug treatment for osteoporosis in clinic

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Abstract

Analysis of the results of long-term investigations of bones in cosmonauts on board Mir orbital station(OS) and International Space Station (ISS) (n = 80) was performed. Theoretically predicted (evolutionary predefined) change in mass of different skeleton bones was found to be correlated (r = 0.904) with the position relative to Earth’s gravity vector. Vector dependence of bone loss results from local specificity of expression of bone metabolism genes, which reflects mechanical prehistory of skeleton structures in the evolution of Homo erectus. Genetic polymorphism is accountable for high individual variability of bone loss, which is attested by the dependence of bone loss rate on polymorphism of certain genetic markers of bone metabolism. The type of the orbital vehicle did not affect the individual-specific stability of the bone loss ratio in different segments of the skeleton. This fact is considered as a phenotype fingerprint of local metabolism in the form of a locus-specific spatial structure of distribution of non-collagen proteins responsible for position regulation of endosteal metabolism. Drug treatment of osteoporosis (n = 107) evidences that recovery rate depends on bone location; the most likely reason is different effectiveness of local osteotropic intervention into areas of bustling resorption.

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Correspondence to O. E. Kabitskaya.

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Original Russian Text © V.S. Oganov, I.A. Skripnikova, V.E. Novikov, A.V. Bakulin, O.E. Kabitskaya, L.M. Murashko, 2011, published in Aviakosmicheskaya i Ekologicheskaya Meditsina, 2011, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 16–21.

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Oganov, V.S., Skripnikova, I.A., Novikov, V.E. et al. Characteristics of local human skeleton responses to microgravity and drug treatment for osteoporosis in clinic. Hum Physiol 40, 762–766 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119714070184

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119714070184

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