Study Questions Lecture 13 Big Picture: 1. How might the skeleton change with age, lifestyle, or nutritional status? 2. Do bones remodel in the same way that they grow? Details: 1. What is osteoporosis? a. Are both men and women susceptible to bone loss with age? b. Why are women more susceptible to bone loss with age? Why does this become a problem after a certain age (or lifestage)? 2. What factors affect how bone remodels? (What are the controls of remodeling?) What cells are involved and how do they act to remodel bone? 3. Why are vitamins D & C important in bone health? Why is calcium important in bone heath? What would happen if you did not have enough vitamin C – what part of the bone matrix would be most affected? What would happen if you did not have enough vitamin D – what part of the bone matrix would be most affected? 4. What hormones are important to growing and maintaining bone? 5. What is the primary hormone responsible for controlling blood calcium level in the blood? a. Where is this hormone produced (in what gland)? b. Where does this hormone act? c. How does this hormone function to increase calcium level in the blood (what cells or processes are activated)? How is calcitriol involved? d. Why is controlling calcium level in the blood important? 6. What hormone can lower calcium level in the blood? Where is this hormone produced (in what gland)? How does this hormone function to decrease calcium level in the blood (what cells does it activate)? 7. What is the primary controller of blood calcium levels in the adult human? 8. Describe the steps in fracture repair. a. How are cartilage cells and bone cells involved in fracture repair? What is a callus? b. Does spongy bone or compact bone form first during fracture repair? c. What is the role of phagocytes in fracture repair? Clinical correlations: 1. In a certain condition (osteopetrosis), too much bone is deposited. What cells do you think are affected here and how are they affected to create this condition? 2. Why is supplemental (pharmaceutical) calcitonin sometimes prescribed to patients with osteoporosis? 3. Which is more detrimental to blood calcium homeostasis – loss of the parathyroid gland or thyroid gland (assume each gland is removed by itself, leaving the other)? 4. How would a tumor of the parathyroid gland affect the skeleton? (Tumor would result in excess PTH release.) 5. Why, in terms of the skeleton, is exercise recommended at all life stages?
