A research breakthrough
for osteoporosis

It’s a "break" that bone researchers have waited for — development of an animal model good for studying the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis. This condition, which strikes more women than men and especially affects older women who have passed menopause, causes bones to lose mass and break easily. An estimated 25 million Americans have osteoporosis or are at risk.

Dike Kalu, PhD, professor of physiology at the Health Science Center, and his colleagues helped develop the rat model of bone loss. "Until recently, there was no animal model considered appropriate for investigating problems related to postmenopausal bone loss," Dr. Kalu said. "Our new model is suitable for these studies." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved use of the rat model for the preclinical (laboratory) testing of new drugs for osteoporosis, he added.

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