The incorporation of fluoride and strontium in hydroxyapatite affects the composition, structure, and mechanical properties of human cortical bone.

Strontium ranelate and fluoride salts are therapeutic options to reduce fracture risk in osteoporosis. Incorporation of these elements in the physiological hydroxyapatite matrix of bone is accompanied by changes in bone remodeling, composition, and structure. However, a direct comparison of the effectiveness of strontium and fluoride treatment in human cortical bone with a focus on the resulting mechanical properties remains to be established. Study groups are composed of undecalcified specimens from healthy controls, treatment-naïve osteoporosis cases, and strontium ranelate or fluoride-treated osteoporosis cases. Concentrations of both elements were determined using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Backscattered electron imaging was carried out to investigate the calcium content and the cortical microstructure. In comparison to osteoporotic patients, fluoride and strontium-treated patients have a lower cortical porosity indicating an improvement in bone microstructure. Mechanical properties were assessed via reference point indentation as a measure of bone's resistance to deformation. The strontium-incorporation led to significantly lower total indentation distance values compared to osteoporotic cases; controls have the highest resistance to indentation. In conclusion, osteoporosis treatment with strontium and fluoride showed positive effects on the microstructure and the mechanical characteristics of bone in comparison to treatment-naïve osteoporotic bone. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 433-442, 2017.

Why do melanin ornaments signal individual quality? Insights from metal element analysis of barn owl feathers.

Melanin-based variation in colour patterns is under strong genetic control and not, or weakly, sensitive to the environment and body condition. Current signalling theory predicts that such traits may not signal honestly phenotypic quality because their production does not entail a significant fitness cost. However, recent studies revealed that in several bird species melanin-based traits covary with phenotypic attributes. In a first move to understand whether such covariations have a physiological basis, we quantified concentrations of five chemical elements in two pigmented plumage traits in the barn owl (Tyto alba). This bird shows continuous variation from immaculate to heavily marked with black spots (plumage spottiness) and from dark reddish-brown to white (plumage coloration), two traits that signal various aspects of individual quality. These two traits are sexually dimorphic with females being spottier and darker coloured than males. We found an enhancement in calcium and zinc concentration within black spots compared with the unspotted feather parts. The degree to which birds were spotted was positively correlated with calcium concentration within spots, whereas the unspotted feather parts of darker reddish-brown birds were more concentrated in zinc. This suggests that two different pigments are responsible for plumage spottiness and plumage coloration. We discuss the implications of our results in light of recent experimental field studies showing that female spottiness signals offspring humoral response towards an artificially administrated antigen, parasite resistance and fluctuating asymmetry of wing feathers.

ElaC encodes a novel binuclear zinc phosphodiesterase.

ElaC is a widespread gene found in eubacteria, archaebacteria, and mammals with a highly conserved sequence. Two human ElaC variants were recently associated with cancer (Tavtigian, S. V., Simard, J., Teng, D. H., Abtin, V., Baumgard, M., Beck, A., Camp, N. J., Carillo, A. R., Chen, Y., Dayananth, P., Desrochers, M., Dumont, M., Farnham, J. M., Frank, D., Frye, C., Ghaffari, S., Gupte, J. S., Hu, R., Iliev, D., Janecki, T., Kort, E. N., Laity, K. E., Leavitt, A., Leblanc, G., McArthur-Morrison, J., Pederson, A., Penn, B., Peterson, K. T., Reid, J. E., Richards, S., Schroeder, M., Smith, R., Snyder, S. C., Swedlund, B., Swensen, J., Thomas, A., Tranchant, M., Woodland, A. M., Labrie, F., Skolnick, M. H., Neuhausen, S., Rommens, J., and Cannon-Albright, L. A. (2001) Nat. Genet. 27, 172-180; Yanaihara, N., Kohno, T., Takakura, S., Takei, K., Otsuka, A., Sunaga, N., Takahashi, M., Yamazaki, M., Tashiro, H., Fukuzumi, Y., Fujimori, Y., Hagiwara, K., Tanaka, T., and Yokota, J. (2001) Genomics 72, 169-179). Analysis of the primary sequence indicates homology to an arylsulfatase and predicts a metallo-beta-lactamase fold. At present, no ElaC gene product has been investigated. We cloned the Escherichia coli ElaC gene and purified the recombinant gene product. An enzymatic analysis showed that ElaC does not encode an arylsulfatase but rather encodes a phosphodiesterase that hydrolyzes bis(p-nitrophenyl)phosphate with a k(cat) of 59 s(-1) and K' of 4 mm. Kinetic analysis of the dimeric enzyme revealed positive cooperativity for the substrate bis(p-nitrophenyl)phosphate with a Hill coefficient of 1.6, whereas hydrolysis of the substrate thymidine-5'-p-nitrophenyl phosphate followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Furthermore, the enzyme is capable of binding two zinc or two iron ions. However, it displays phosphodiesterase activity only in the zinc form. The metal environment characterized by zinc K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy was modeled with two histidine residues, one carboxylate group, and 1.5 oxygen atoms. This corresponds to the coordination found in other metallo-beta-lactamase domain proteins. Phosphodiesterase activity is strongly dependent on the presence of zinc. These results identify the currently unassigned gene product ElaC to be a novel binuclear zinc phosphodiesterase.