| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Submitted on September 10, 2007
Accepted on February 5, 2008
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905; Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR; Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Urszula.Iwaniec{at}oregonstate.edu.
The role of progesterone receptor (PR) signaling in skeletal metabolism is controversial. To address whether signaling through the PR is necessary for normal bone growth and turnover, we performed histomorphometric and µCT analyses of bone from homozygous female PR knockout (PRKO) mice at 6, 12, and 26 weeks of age. These mice possess a null mutation of the PR locus, which blocks the gene expression of A and B isoforms of PR. Body weight gain, uterine weight gain and tibia longitudinal bone growth were normal in PRKO mice. In contrast, total, cancellous and cortical bone mass were increased in the humerus of 12-week-old PRKO mice, whereas cortical and cancellous bone mass in the tibia was normal. At 26weeks of age, cancellous bone area in the proximal tibia metaphysis of PRKO mice was 153% greater than age matched wild type (WT). The improved cancellous bone balance in 6-month-old PRKO mice was associated with elevated bone formation and a tendency toward reduced osteoclast perimeter. Taken together, these findings suggest that PR signaling in mice is not essential for bone growth and turnover. However, at some skeletal sites, PR signaling attenuates the accumulation of cortical and cancellous bone mass during adolescence.
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| Endocrinology | Endocrine Reviews | J. Clin. End. & Metab. |
| Molecular Endocrinology | Recent Prog. Horm. Res. | All Endocrine Journals |