Recently, Nature Reviews Endocrinology, the leading journal in endocrinology and metabolism (IF 47.564), featured an important advance in bone-metabolism research from the team led by Professor Qinghua Zhao of the Clinical Medical Center of Orthopedics at Shanghai General Hospital and Professor Ming He of the Department of Pathophysiology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. The Research Highlights section introduced the work in a dedicated feature.
Professor Qinghua Zhao said: "While studying age-related osteoporosis, we identified a new liver-bone organ communication mechanism regulated by hepatocyte SIRT2. The team found that small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from hepatocytes mediate communication between hepatocytes and osteoclasts during aging, and that these sEVs contain a functional molecule, leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein 1 (LRG1). This work reveals a new strategy for understanding primary osteoporosis and provides new insights into its treatment."
Professor Zhao further noted: "These findings suggest that targeting sEVs involved in communication between hepatocytes and osteoclasts may become a new target for primary osteoporosis treatment. This could support more precise treatment and has important translational significance."