Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Scanning Skeletal Remains for Bone Mineral Density in Forensic Contexts
Published on: January 29, 2018
Genetic and environmental correlations between bone mineral density and bone size in Caucasians
Yuan Chen1, Yan-Fang Guo, Shu-Feng Lei
1Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, PR China.
Abstract:
To explore the magnitude of common genetic and environmental effects shared by bone mineral density (BMD) and bone size (BS) in a large sample of 4,489 subjects (2,667 females and 1,822 males) from 582 Caucasian pedigrees, we performed a bivariate variance decomposition analysis to evaluate genetic correlation (rhoG), environmental correlation (rhoE), and phenotypic correlation (rhoP) between BMD and BS at the spine and hip, as well as their "synthesized" skeletal site (bone mineral density principal component, bone size principal component) generated by principal components analysis. Significant rhoG, rhoE, and rhoP were detected, but the shared genetic influence on BMD and BS was only 21%, 1.3%, and 11.6% at the spine, hip, and their joint variable, respectively. The results suggest that it may be important to choose both BMD and BS, especially at the hip, as surrogate phenotypes for osteoporosis genetic studies in Caucasians.
Related Concept Videos
Bone Disorders
Bone deposition is also affected by the levels of sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone that promote osteoblast activity and bone matrix synthesis. When the level of these hormones decreases due to aging, it causes a reduction in bone deposition. As a result, bone resorption by osteoclasts...
Gene-Environment Interactions
Nature and Nurture
Hormones and Bone Tissue
Hormones That Influence Osteoblasts and/or Maintain the Matrix
Several hormones are necessary for controlling bone growth and maintaining the bone matrix. The pituitary gland secretes growth hormone (GH), which, as its name implies, controls bone growth. This happens in several ways: first, it triggers chondrocyte...
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies.
Bone Remodeling