Osteoporosis: Causes, Mechanisms, Treatment and Prevention: Role of Dietary Compounds.

Osteoporosis is a chronic disease that is characterized by a loss of bone density, which mainly affects the microstructure of the bones due to a decrease in bone mass, thereby making them more fragile and susceptible to fractures. Osteoporosis is currently considered one of the pandemics of the 21st century, affecting around 200 million people. Its most serious consequence is an increased risk of bone fractures, thus making osteoporosis a major cause of disability and even premature death in the elderly.

Association between Randall's plaque and calcifying nanoparticles.

Objectives: Randall initially described calcified subepithelial papillary plaques, which he hypothesized as nidi for urinary calculi. The discovery of calcifying nanoparticles (CNP), also referred to as nanobacteria, in calcified soft tissues has raised another hypothesis about their possible involvement in urinary stone formation. This research is the first attempt to investigate the potential association of these two hypotheses.

Nanobacteria--propagating calcifying nanoparticles.

Nanobacteria, also known as calcifying nanoparticles (CNP), are controversial infectious agents not matching the current criteria for 'living organism'. Despite the controversy of their classification, they propagate and cause cell death in vitro and are associated or found in many human diseases. Thus, more efforts should be focussed on research on pathogenicity of CNP.

A preliminary investigation into light-modulated replication of nanobacteria and heart disease.

Objective: The purpose of this preliminary study is to evaluate the effect of various wavelengths of light on nanobacteria (NB).

Background Data: NB and mitochondria use light for biological processes. NB have been described as multifunctional primordial nanovesicles with the potential to utilize solar energy for replication.

Living nanovesicles--chemical and physical survival strategies of primordial biosystems.

Life on Earth and Mars could have started with self-assembled nanovesicles similar to the present nanobacteria (NB). To resist extreme environmental stress situations and periods of nutritional deprivation, nanovesicles would have had a chemical composition protected by a closed mineralized compartment, facilitating their development in a primordial soup, or other early wet environment. Their survivability would have been enhanced if they had mechanisms for metabolic communication, and an ability to collect primordially available energy forms.

[Nanobacteria in serum, bile and gallbladder mucosa of cholecystolithiasis patients].

Objective: To find the distribution of nanobacteria in the serum, bile and gallbladder mucosa of cholecystolithiasis patients.

Methods: The infection rate of nanobacteria was identified by ELISA in the serum samples from 338 healthy people and 76 patients with cholecystolithiasis (chi(2) = 0.89, P > 0.

Characteristics of nanobacteria and their possible role in stone formation.

Kidney stone formation is a multifactorial disease in which the defence mechanisms and risk factors are imbalanced in favour of stone formation. We have proposed a novel infectious agent, mineral forming nanobacteria (NB), to be active nidi that attach to, invade and damage the urinary epithelium of collecting ducts and papilla forming the calcium phosphate center(s) found in most kidney stones. Stone formation may proceed in urine supersaturated with calcium phosphate, calcium oxalate and uric acid/urate under the influence of crystallization promoters and inhibitors.

[Culture and identification of nanobacteria in bile].

Objective: To study the distribution and identification of nanobacteria in bile and to evaluate the identifying methods of nanobacteria.

Methods: RPMI1640 culture or RPMI1640 culture with 10% heat-inactivated gamma-FBS was added into 75 samples of cystic bile from gallbladders resected in operation. Nanobacteria were identified by immunohistochemical staining, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and calcific staining.

Light-induced replication of nanobacteria: a preliminary report.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of light on nanobacteria.

Background Data: Since their first description in literature, it is not clear whether the nanoparticles called "nanobacteria" are alive or not. The 80-1,000-nm-sized spherical particles are protected by a crystalline carbonate apatite shell and are culturable in cell culture media.

Inhibition of nanobacteria by antimicrobial drugs as measured by a modified microdilution method.

Compounds from 16 classes of antimicrobial drugs were tested for their abilities to inhibit the in vitro multiplication of nanobacteria (NB), a newly discovered infectious agent found in human kidney stones and kidney cyst fluids from patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD). Because NB form surface calcifications at physiologic levels of calcium and phosphate, they have been hypothesized to mediate the formation of tissue calcifications. We describe a modified microdilution inhibitory test that accommodates the unique growth conditions and long multiplication times of NB.

Nanobacteria: controversial pathogens in nephrolithiasis and polycystic kidney disease.

Nanobacteria are unconventional agents 100-fold smaller than common bacteria that can replicate apatite-forming units. Nanobacteria are powerful mediators of biogenic apatite nucleation (crystal form of calcium phosphate) and crystal growth under conditions simulating blood and urine. Apatite is found in the central nidus of most kidney stones and in mineral plaques (Randall's plaques) in renal papilla.

Endotoxin and nanobacteria in polycystic kidney disease.

Background: Microbes have been suspected as provocateurs of polycystic kidney disease (PKD), but attempts to isolate viable organisms have failed. Bacterial endotoxin is the most often reported microbial product found in PKD fluids. We assessed potential microbial origins of endotoxin in cyst fluids from 13 PKD patients and urines of PKD and control individuals.

Nanobacteria: an infectious cause for kidney stone formation.

Background: Nanobacteria are cytotoxic, sterile-filterable, gram-negative, atypical bacteria detected in bovine and human blood. Nanobacteria produce carbonate apatite on their cell walls. Data on Randall's plaques suggest that apatite may initiate kidney stone formation.

Nanobacteria: an alternative mechanism for pathogenic intra- and extracellular calcification and stone formation.

Calcium phosphate is deposited in many diseases, but formation mechanisms remain speculative. Nanobacteria are the smallest cell-walled bacteria, only recently discovered in human and cow blood and commercial cell culture serum. In this study, we identified with energy-dispersive x-ray microanalysis and chemical analysis that all growth phases of nanobacteria produce biogenic apatite on their cell envelope.

Amphoterin, the 30-kDa protein in a family of HMG1-type polypeptides. Enhanced expression in transformed cells, leading edge localization, and interactions with plasminogen activation.

Amphoterin is a heparin-binding protein that is developmentally regulated in brain and functionally involved in neurite outgrowth. Unexpectedly, amphoterin has a high mobility group 1 (HMG1)-type sequence. In the present study we have expressed amphoterin cDNA in a baculovirus vector and produced antibodies against the recombinant protein and several synthetic peptides.

Screening of effects of selenomethionine-enriched yeast supplementation on various immunological and chemical parameters of skin and blood in psoriatic patients.

Selenium (Se) is known to affect the immune system, and decreased Se-levels in blood of patients with moderate or severe psoriasis have been reported. In this study, the effect of Se-supplementation (400 micrograms/day for 6 weeks as Se-yeast, containing about 70% selenomethionine, SeMet) on skin and blood Se-content, on skin glutathione peroxidase activity and on various chemical and immunological parameters of blood and skin was investigated in 7 psoriatic patients. Before the SeMet-supplementation, serum and blood Se-levels were at the normal range, but they increased 42-45% during the Se-dosage, while zinc levels remained unchanged.

Metabolism, cellular actions, and cytotoxicity of selenomethionine in cultured cells.

Selenomethionine metabolism and the biochemical basis for its cytotoxicity were analyzed in cultured human and murine lymphoid cells. The metabolic pathways were also addressed, using purified mammalian enzymes and crude tissue extracts. Selenomethionine was found to be effectively metabolized to S-adenosylmethionine analog, and that analog was further metabolized in transmethylation reactions and in polyamine synthesis, similarly to the corresponding sulphur metabolites of methionine.