Assessment Of Multiple Analytes In Women w/ Osteoporosis

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Abstract

Bone loss in women pre- and post-menopause is a serious clinical condition affecting a reasonably large proportion of the public. Depression is a compounding condition that has been shown to accentuate pathways leading to bone loss and suggesting a mind-body connection. The POWER study conducted at the NIH Clinical Center is designed to study the interactions of depression and severity of osteoporosis in pre-menopausal women. The DBEPS Ultramicro Analytical Immunochemistry Resource has undertaken to develop a panel of analytical techniques (recycling immunoaffinity chromatography [RIC]; immunoaffinity microarrays; immunoaffinity capillary electrophoresis [ICE]) to study a number of different systemic pathways that possibly may be involved in the connection between osteoporosis and depression. Cohorts of both normal and depressed age-matched women have been recruited into the study, double-blinded and the codes broken after the analyses. Samples were taken on three occasions during which 24 one-hour samples were taken and analyzed for 45 different analytes. Although the sample analyses have now been successfully completed, the data analysis is still in progress due to the extremely large number of data points generated. Preliminary examination of the data has indicated circadian rhythms for many of the different cytokines and growth factors measured. The data also indicates that the depressed individuals can be classified into two groups according to their analyte patterns. Preliminary analysis has indicated a strong correlation between the presence of pain-associated neuropeptides and changes in bone density.