Year: 2014
Pages: 24-51
Number: Volume 6, issue 1
Type: scientific article
This review reflects the achievements in the field of genetics of osteoporosis, as well as modern approaches and directions for further research of the disease. Osteoporosis occupies a prominent place among the diseases with high mortality and causes more than 8.9 million annual fractures worldwide, and is characterized by low bone mineral density (BMD) and microarchitectural bone disorders. The prevalence of osteoporosis varies widely, reaching 5-10 fold differences between geographical regions, which is probably due to the hereditary nature of the magnitude of the skeleton and regional peculiarities of diet and physical activity, as well as features of the genetic structure of populations. The study of genetics of osteoporosis began a new era of discovery with the beginning of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of hundreds of thousands single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with BMD level and osteoporotic fractures, identified new loci associated with osteoporosis, which were not detected in previous studies of candidate genes.
osteoporosis, bone mineral density, fractures, genome-wide association studies