1
|
Little-Letsinger SE, Hamilton SE. Leveraging mice with diverse microbial exposures for advances in osteoimmunology. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2023; 14:1168552. [PMID: 37251680 PMCID: PMC10210590 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1168552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2023] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/31/2023] Open
Abstract
The skeletal and immune systems are intricately intertwined within the bone marrow microenvironment, a field of study termed osteoimmunology. Osteoimmune interactions are key players in bone homeostasis and remodeling. Despite the critical role of the immune system in bone health, virtually all animal research in osteoimmunology, and more broadly bone biology, relies on organisms with naïve immune systems. Drawing on insights from osteoimmunology, evolutionary anthropology, and immunology, this perspective proposes the use of a novel translational model: the dirty mouse. Dirty mice, characterized by diverse exposures to commensal and pathogenic microbes, have mature immune systems comparable to adult humans, while the naïve immune system of specific-pathogen free mice is akin to a neonate. Investigation into the dirty mouse model will likely yield important insights in our understanding of bone diseases and disorders. A high benefit of this model is expected for diseases known to have a connection between overactivation of the immune system and negative bone outcomes, including aging and osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS, obesity and diabetes, bone marrow metastases, and bone cancers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Sara E. Hamilton
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Madimenos FC, Gildner TE, Eick GN, Sugiyama LS, Snodgrass JJ. Bringing the lab bench to the field: Point-of-care testing for enhancing health research and stakeholder engagement in rural/remote, indigenous, and resource-limited contexts. Am J Hum Biol 2022; 34:e23808. [PMID: 36166487 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Point-of-care testing (POCT) allows researchers and health-care providers to bring the lab bench to the field, providing essential health information that can be leveraged to improve health care, accessibility, and understanding across clinical and research settings. Gaps in health service access are most pronounced in what we term RIR settings-rural/remote regions, involving Indigenous peoples, and/or within resource-limited settings. In these contexts, morbidity and mortality from infectious and non-communicable diseases are disproportionately higher due to numerous geographic, economic, political, and sociohistorical factors. Human biologists and global health scholars are well-positioned to contribute on-the-ground-level insights that can serve to minimize global health inequities and POCT has the potential to augment such approaches. While the clinical benefits of POCT include increasing health service access by bringing testing, rapid diagnosis, and treatment to underserved communities with limited pathways to centralized laboratory testing, POCT also provides added benefits to both health-focused researchers and their participants. Through portable, minimally invasive devices, researchers can provide actionable health data to participants by coupling POCT with population-specific health education, discussing results and their implications, creating space for participants to voice concerns, and facilitating linkages to treatment. POCT can also strengthen human biology research by shedding light on questions of evolutionary and biocultural importance. Here, we expand on the epidemiological and research value, as well as practical and ethical challenges of POCT across stakeholders (i.e., participant, community, health researcher, and trainee). Finally, we emphasize the immense opportunities of POCT for fostering collaborative research and enhancing access to health delivery and information and, by extension, helping to mitigate persistent global health inequities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Felicia C Madimenos
- Department of Anthropology, Queens College (CUNY), New York, USA.,New York Consortium of Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), CUNY Graduate Center, New York, USA
| | - Theresa E Gildner
- Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
| | - Geeta N Eick
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA
| | | | - James J Snodgrass
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.,Center for Global Health, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.,Global Station for Indigenous Studies and Cultural Diversity, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Agarwal SC. What is normal bone health? A bioarchaeological perspective on meaningful measures and interpretations of bone strength, loss, and aging. Am J Hum Biol 2021; 33:e23647. [PMID: 34272787 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2020] [Revised: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Bioarchaeological (the study of archeological human remains together with contextual and documentary evidence) offers a unique vantage point to examine variation in skeletal morphology related to influences such as activity, disease, and nutrition. The human skeleton is composed of a dynamic tissue that is forged by biocultural factors over the entire life course, providing a record of individual, and community history. Various aspects of adult bone health, particularly bone maintenance and loss and the associated skeletal disease osteoporosis, have been examined in numerous past populations. The anthropological study of bone loss has traditionally focused on the signature of postmenopausal aging, costs of reproduction, and fragility in females. The a priori expectation of normative sex-related bone loss/fragility in bioanthropological studies illustrates the wider gender-ideological bias that continues in research design and data analysis in the field. Contextualized data on bone maintenance and aging in the archeological record show that patterns of bone loss do not constitute predictable consequences of aging or biological sex. Instead, the critical examination of bioarchaeological data highlights the complex and changing processes that craft the human body over the life course, and calls for us to question the ideal or "normal" range of bone quantity and quality in the human skeleton, and to critically reflect on what measures are actually biologically and/or socially meaningful.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sabrina C Agarwal
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Griffin JS, Dent SC, Berger SM. Pathways linking activity, adiposity, and inflammation to bone mineral density in women and men from NHANES 2007 to 2010. Am J Hum Biol 2021; 33:e23583. [PMID: 33645876 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2020] [Revised: 02/07/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Age, sedentary activity, central adiposity, and inflammation have all been independently associated with bone mineral density (BMD). We assessed how the effects of sedentary activity and central adiposity on BMD of the lumbar spine and femoral neck change across early to late adulthood and whether these relationships are mediated by inflammation. METHODS We analyzed data from 7135 women and men 20 years of age and older from NHANES 2007 to 2010. Anthropometrics, sedentary activity (min/day), serum CRP (mg/dl), and BMD (gm/cm2 measured by DXA scans) at the femoral neck and lumbar spine. Data were compared by age and sex groups and through causal mediation analysis. RESULTS The effect of waist circumference on BMD was significantly mediated by serum CRP at both skeletal sites in men and at the femoral neck in women. Sedentary activity did not have a direct relationship to BMD but was mediated by waist circumference in men. Least square means differed significantly by sex and age groups with a general age-related decline in BMD at both skeletal sites. CONCLUSIONS We found that central adiposity, independent of overall body size and composition as measured through BMI, has an inverse relationship with BMD that is mediated by serum CRP. In addition, the negative impact of increased sedentism acted through changes in central adiposity (waist circumference) but only in men. Although low bone density and osteoporosis are often considered degenerative diseases that primarily impact postmenopausal women, our findings show that sedentary activity and central adiposity impact bone density beginning in early adulthood in both women and men.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jacob S Griffin
- Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Sophia C Dent
- Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA
| | - Steph M Berger
- Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Eick GN, Madimenos FC, Cepon‐Robins TJ, Devlin MJ, Kowal P, Sugiyama LS, Snodgrass JJ. Validation of an enzyme‐linked immunoassay assay for osteocalcin, a marker of bone formation, in dried blood spots. Am J Hum Biol 2020; 32:e23394. [DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2019] [Revised: 01/03/2020] [Accepted: 01/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Geeta N. Eick
- Department of Anthropology University of Oregon Eugene Oregon
| | | | - Tara J. Cepon‐Robins
- Department of Anthropology University of Colorado Springs Colorado Springs Colorado
| | - Maureen J. Devlin
- Department of Anthropology University of Michigan Ann Arbor Michigan
| | - Paul Kowal
- Research Centre for Generational Health and Ageing University of Newcastle Newcastle New South Wales Australia
- Research Institute for Health Sciences Chiang Mai University Chiang Mai Thailand
| | | | | |
Collapse
|