• Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us
Prospective Students

Prospective Students

Prospective Students
  • Admissions
    Procedure & Timelines
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admissions Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • COVID-19 Impacts on Admissions
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Prerequisites
    General Information
    • Statement of Diversity
    • Mission Statement
    • Curriculum Resdesign
    • Honor Code
    • FAQs
    • Admissions Brochure
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admission Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • Competencies
    • COVID-19 Impact on Admissions
    • DACA Applicants
    • DGSOM Mission Statement
    • FAQs
    • Honor Code
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Statement of Diversity
    • Virtual Events
  • Outreach & Pipeline Programs
    Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccaluareate Programs
    • UCLA SHPEP
    • UCLA PREP
    • UCLA RAP
    Outreach and Recruitment
    • Conferences and Events
    • Stay Connected!
    • Contact Us
    • Conferences & Outreach Events
    • Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccalaureate Programs
    • Contact Us
    • Stay Connected
  • Financial Aid & Scholarships
  • Degrees & Programs
  • Curriculum
  • Student Life
    Why Choose UCLA
    • Research
    • Clinical Work
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    Campus Life
    • Student Organizations
    • Annual Events
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Photo Galleries
    • Medical and Research News
    • Medical Student Council
    • Geffy Guide
    • Search Campus and Health News
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    • Photo Galleries
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Medical and Research News
    • Search Campus and Health News
  • How to Apply
  • Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us

Prospective Students

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  1. Home
  2. Prospective Students
  3. Student Life
  4. Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Share this

Health News

Title

Protein combination improves bone regeneration, UCLA study shows

Health News

Date
01/28/2016
Article

A UCLA research team has found a combination of proteins that could significantly improve clinical bone restoration. The findings may be a big step toward developing effective therapeutic treatments for bone skeletal defects, bone loss and osteoporosis.

The study, led by Dr. Kang Ting, professor and chair of the section of orthodontics at the UCLA School of Dentistry; Dr. Chia Soo, professor of plastic surgery and vice chair for research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; and Dr. Aaron James, a fellow in surgical pathology, will appear as the lead article in the February print edition of the American Journal of Pathology.

Current treatments for bone skeletal defects utilize bone morphogenetic protein-2, or BMP2, an FDA-approved bone-healing protein. But the high concentrations needed to induce human bone formation may have serious side effects, including life-threatening cervical swelling and abnormal and inconsistent bone growth.

The same research team has conducted other studies on bone growth, including one that utilized a protein called NELL-1, which successfully increased bone formation and stimulated key factors for bone growth in multiple preclinical models.

In the new study, the team paired the NELL-1 protein, which Ting discovered, with BMP2. They found that the combination of the two proteins increased bone formation while inhibiting the formation of fat cells — a negative side effect of BMP2, which encourages stem cells to form both bone and fat cells. By contrast, NELL-1 encourages stem cells to form bone cells instead of fat cells. Used together, the two proteins stimulate bone production more dramatically than either does alone.

“Before this study, large bone defects in patients were difficult to treat with BMP2 or other existing products available to surgeons,” Ting said. “The combination of NELL-1 and BMP2 resulted in improved safety and efficacy of bone regeneration in animal models — and may, one day, offer patients significantly better bone healing.”

The study showed that NELL-1 works by activating the cellular signaling pathway that regulates whether a stem cell differentiates into a bone cell or a fat cell. It also showed that BMP2 can induce non-bone cells to form bone, with the potential risk for ectopic bone growth — bone formation in undesirable locations.

The two proteins complement each other in that BMP2 helps to turn non-bone cells into bone-forming cells, and NELL-1 then increases the bone-forming ability of bone cells.

“In contrast to BMP2, the novel ability of NELL-1 to stimulate bone growth and repress the formation of fat may highlight new treatment approaches for osteoporosis and other therapies for bone loss,” Soo said.

Previous and present studies demonstrate a strong rationale for combining NELL-1 with BMP2 to significantly improve the safety and efficacy of current bone regeneration options. The combination of NELL-1 and BMP2 may be particularly valuable for healing local bone defects in people who have osteoporosis or for those taking medications, such as steroids, that can inhibit bone growth.

NELL-1 is also currently in development as a single therapy for systemic treatment of osteoporosis. NELL-1, when given systemically, does not appear to induce ectopic bone. In contrast, because of its known capacity to induce unwanted bone, BMP2 may not be as appropriate for systemic administration.

“Dr. Ting and his research team have made a very valuable discovery for the field of bone regeneration,” said Dr. No-Hee Park, dean of the UCLA School of Dentistry. “The researchers’ findings have potential to help millions who suffer from osteoporosis and other bone defects.”

The study’s other authors are Jia Shen, Dr. Aaron James, Dr. Xinli Zhang, Dr. Janette Zara, Greg Asatrian, Michael Chiang, Min Lee, Alan Nguyen, Kevin Lee, Ronald Siu, Dr. Sotirios Tetradis, Kevork Khadarian and Shen Pang, all of UCLA.

The study was supported in part by a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Early Translational II Research Award (TR2-01821); National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research grants (R21 DE0177711, RO1 DE01607 and RO1 AR061399-01A1); a UC Discovery Grant (07-10677) and a Broad Stem Cell Research Center Innovation Award.

Several of the study authors, including Xinli Zhang, Ting and Soo, are inventors on NELL-1-related patents and are founders and/or board members of Bone Biologics Corporation, which sublicenses NELL-1 patents from the UC Regents. The regents also hold equity in the company. 

Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
  • Giving
  • Publications
  • Newsroom
  • Weekly Digest
  • Directory
  • Contact Us
  • Diversity
  • Emergency
  • Maps & Directions
  • UC Regents
  • Abuse Free
  • Volunteer
  • Biomed Library
  • Disability Resources
  • UCLA Health
  • Smoke-Free
  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare