Vibrational therapy could be used to reproduce a reinforcement activity such as weightlifting in patients whose bones are broken or brittle, suggests a new study.
It approaches an interesting paradox: the bones become densest when subject to a mechanical force and load – which is true even for broken bones – which cannot be subjected to a mechanical force or load.
The study seemed to see if, by examining the genetic expression during vibrational therapy on bones, it may be possible to reproduce these laborious healing forces in patients who cannot perform activities such as weightlifting.
There is an old saying in medicine that will “break your hip, die of pneumonia”. Although these two diseases may seem to have nothing in common, they are a duo responsible for a large number of deaths among the elderly of society.
Bone density decreases considerably as we age and is accelerated among those who do not exercise resistance, strength training or weightlifting.
“Ideally, we need new therapeutic approaches to delay breaking of bones in old age,” said Neashan Mathavan, researcher in the Department of Health Sciences at the Technical University of Switzerland (ETH).
Mathavan is a main author on A new study It seemed to see if the bones fractured by old age could be thickened with a unique “vibration therapy” by exploiting the genetics of bone growth and repair.
The bone is not content to develop in any way – rather than bone cells react to external forces. If the bones are subject to a targeted mechanical load because they heal after a fracture, they can potentially become larger, densest and more stable than they were before the fracture occurs.
Although this has been demonstrated in mice, the mechanism that leads to this effect is not included.
“It is only if we understand these mechanisms that we can use them as a basis to develop new therapies”, Mathavan said to the university press.
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By working alongside Ralph Müller, whose trials with the mice put the board of directors for this new research, Mathavan sought to precisely trace the activity of genes in mice receiving this vibratory therapy for a broken leg.
“For each point of the bone, we now know what mechanical conditions exist there, where the bone is formed and where the bone is broken,” explains Professor Müller of the ETH.
Among the results were the locations where genes that cause bone mineralization and the formation of a collagen bone matrix have become active, but also, and perhaps more critical, where in bones were genes that inhibit the growth of the activated bone.
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This genetic polarity will be essential to conceive of new therapeutic approaches which allow fractures to cure better and the bones remain strong even in old age.
“We will see what direction it is necessary,” explains Müller. “It is likely that vibration therapy will involve fewer side effects than treatment using medication.”
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