Osteoprotegerin and RANKL in the pathogenesis of thalassemia-induced osteoporosis: new pieces of the puzzle.

Unlabelled: Osteoporosis represents an important cause of morbidity in adult thalassemic patients, and its pathogenesis has not, as yet, been completely clarified. In our study, we observed that thalassemic patients showed a significantly lower OPG/RANKL ratio than normal subjects. These data are extremely important for the possible therapeutic use of RANKL antagonists such as OPG in thalassemia-induced osteoporosis.

Effects of genistein and hormone-replacement therapy on bone loss in early postmenopausal women: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study.

The natural isoflavone phytoestrogen genistein has been shown to stimulate osteoblastic bone formation, inhibit osteoclastic bone resorption, and prevent bone loss in ovariectomized rats. However, no controlled clinical trial has been performed so far to evaluate the effects of the phytoestrogen on bone loss in postmenopausal women. We performed a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study to evaluate and compare with hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) the effect of the phytoestrogen genistein on bone metabolism and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women.