Provided herein is a method of suppressing osteoclast differentiation or function and/or bone resorption or destruction in a subject in need thereof and compositions therefore. In one embodiment, the method includes increasing the amount, expression, or activity of Foxo3 isoform 2 in the subject.

Provided herein are methods of diagnosing and treating a skeletal disease in a subject. The method includes (i) identifying the presence of osteoclast-enhancing cells (OECs) in the subject; (ii) quantifying the number of circulating OECs in a sample from the subject; and (iii) diagnosing a skeletal disease in the subject when an increase in OECs is detected as compared to a control.

The present invention relates generally to the field of implant related risk of revision, in particular implant related risk of revision not caused by an infection or metal on metal reaction. The present invention provides methods of diagnosing implant related risk of revision, use of kits for such diagnostic purposes and compositions for use in the treatment of implant related risk of revision, in particular implant related risk of revision not caused by an infection or metal on metal reaction.

A disease predicting system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an input unit into which input information including first information of a subject used in diagnosis of a disease and second information relating to a hormone-like agent of the subject is input; and a control unit configured to predict a future onset of the disease for the subject from the input information input into the input unit.

The present invention relates to biological markers of metabolic bone diseases or disorders such as osteoporosis and related methods using thereof. The invention further relates to the use of those biomarkers and related material and assays in the diagnosis of subjects at risk of developing such disorders or monitoring the effects of a treatment thereof.

The present invention relates, in part, to methods of preventing and/or treating a subject afflicted with bone loss conditions comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of an agent that decreases the amount and/or activity of irisin.

The present invention provides a method for inducing osteogenic differentiation, the method comprising the following steps of: (1) culturing pluripotent stem cells under feeder-free conditions, (2) culturing the cells in a mixed culture medium of an osteogenic induction medium and a pluripotent stem cell medium, the mixed culture medium containing a ROCK inhibitor and a retinoic acid receptor or agonist, and (3) culturing the cells in an osteogenic induction medium containing the retinoic acid receptor or agonist. The method for inducing osteogenic differentiation according to the present invention is a simple, short-term, highly efficient and highly reproducible one-procedure method for inducing osteogenic differentiation, wherein the method is suitable for bone regeneration therapies, the development of bone metabolic drugs and the development of novel therapies for bone diseases.

A lateral flow test strip (LFTS) platform measures osteocalcin (OC) in saliva to identify early indications of bone loss and minimize bone fracture risk associated with osteoporosis. The OC assay embodiments are based on the experimentally identified optimal markers which exhibit selectivity with very low false positives, and sensitivity relevant to clinical requirements. A prospective clinical study sampling of 20 patients demonstrated excellent correlation of OC in saliva with bone mineral density (BMD). Salivary OC and Dpd levels were validated with a standard commercial ELISA kit against serum (OC) and urine (Dpd). Multiplexed LFTS are used to increase specificity of an assay.

An object of the present invention is to provide a pharmaceutical agent for the treatment and/or prophylaxis of pediatric osteoporosis without causing bone growth disorder in a subject to be medicated. A pharmaceutical composition for the treatment and/or prophylaxis of pediatric osteoporosis contains an antibody or a functional fragment thereof which binds to Siglec-15 and has activity of suppressing formation of osteoclasts and/or bone resorption by osteoclasts.

Disclosed are embodiments of a lateral flow test strip (LFTS) platform which measure osteocalcin (OC) and deoxypyridinoline (Dpd) in saliva to identify early indications of bone loss and minimize bone fracture risk associated with osteoporosis. The OC assay embodiments are based on the experimentally identified optimal markers which exhibit selectivity with very low false positives, and sensitivity relevant to clinical requirements. A prospective clinical study sampling of 20 patients demonstrated excellent correlation of OC in saliva with bone mineral density (BMD). Salivary OC and Dpd levels were validated with a standard commercial ELISA kit against serum (OC) and urine (Dpd).