Patent Application: US-201013263274-A

Abstract:
the present invention provides a method for detecting autoantibodies to osteoprotegerin . the method comprises the step of providing a biological sample from a subject with , or at risk of osteoporosis and detecting whether or not any antibodies against osteoprotegerin are present in said sample . in addition the invention provides methods useful in aiding the diagnosis / prognosis and / or therapeutic regimen for autoimmune and / or vascular disease in general .

Description:
the present invention will now be further described by way of example and with reference to the figures which show : fig1 shows clinical features of the subject and response to treatment panel a . photomicrograph of transiliac bone biopsy stained with toluidine blue illustrating increased extent of osteoid seams , indicative of a mild mineralization defect . panel b . radionucleotide bone scan showing generalised increase in tracer uptake without evidence of focal lesions . panel c . photomicrograph of transiliac bone biopsy stained with h & amp ; e showing marked increase in osteoclasts ( red arrows ) and osteoblasts ( blue arrows ). woven bone is present throughout the biopsy as evidenced by the irregular cement lines . panel d . bone mineral density and panel e , urinary deoxypyridinoline / creatinine ratio ( dpd ) and alkaline phosphatase ( alp ) levels at presentation and in response to treatment . bone density fell despite an extended period of treatment with a gluten free diet , calcium and vitamin d ( grey bar ), but bmd progressively increased following treatment with zoledronic acid ( arrows ) ( panel c ). serum alp levels fell from over 3000 u / ml to about 1000 u / ml following treatment with a gluten free diet , calcium and vitamin d , but dpd remained grossly elevated . treatment with zoledronic acid ( arrows ) normalised both biochemical markers of bone turnover . fig2 shows the detection of neutralising autoantibodies to osteoprotegrin panel a . the left panel shows the presence of autoantibodies directed against osteoprotegerin in the patient &# 39 ; s serum , reflected by the detection of a 55 kd band on western blot by an anti - opg antibody following immunoprecipitation . samples from controls failed to immunoprecipitate opg under the same conditions . the top right panel is stained for immunoglobulin to confirm equal loading of the gel . the result shown is representative of three independent experiments . panel b . patient serum , but not control serum abrogates the inhibitory effect of 100 ng / ml opg on rankl stimulated nfκb activation in hek 239 cells . addition of 400 ng / ml opg ( column labelled xs opg ) overcame the inhibition . ** p & lt ; 0 . 001 from vehicle ; ## p & lt ; 0 . 01 from rankl and from rankl + opg + patient serum . the result is representative of three independent experiments . fig3 : ( a ) demonstrates the presence of autoantibodies to opg in the patient &# 39 ; s serum ( lane 2 ) reflected by the detection of a strong band at 55 kd on western blot by an anti - opg antibody following immunoprecipitation . lane i shows a negative control . lanes 3 - 12 show results from patients 1 - 10 with celiac disease and evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 9 and 10 . the lower panel shows the western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel . ( b ) lane 1 shows a negative control and lane 2 shows a positive control of the index patient &# 39 ; s serum . lanes 3 - 12 show patients 11 - 20 with celiac disease and evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 10 - 12 . lower panel shows the western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel : ( c ) lane 1 shows a positive control of the index patient &# 39 ; s serum and lane 2 shows a negative control . lanes 3 - 8 show patients 21 - 26 with celiac disease and evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 4 and 7 . lower panel shows the western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show lanes were not equally loaded . fig4 : ( a ) lane 1 shows a negative control and lane 2 shows a positive control of the index patient &# 39 ; s serum . lanes 3 - 12 show results from patients 27 - 36 with celiac disease and evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 4 , 5 , 6 and 12 . the lower panel shows the western slot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel . ( b ) lane 1 shows a positive control of the index patients serum and lane 2 shows a negative control . lanes 3 - 12 show patients 37 - 48 with celiac disease and evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 3 , 6 , 7 and 11 . lower panel shows western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel . fig5 : lane 1 shows a positive control of the index patient &# 39 ; s serum and lane 2 shows a negative control . lanes 3 - 12 show results from patients 1 - 10 with idiopathic osteoporosis . evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 3 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 and 11 . the lower panel shows the western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel . fig6 : ( a ) lane 1 shows a negative control and lane 2 shows a positive control of the index patient &# 39 ; s serum . lanes 3 - 12 show patients 1 - 10 with autoimmune hypothyroidism and evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lane 2 . the lower panel shows the western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel . ( b ) lane 1 shows a negative control . lanes 2 - 12 show patients 11 - 21 with autoimmune hypothyroidism and confirmed trab autoantibodies in their serum . evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 3 , 4 and 5 . the lower panel shows the western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel . ( c ) lane 1 shows a negative control , lanes 2 - 12 show patients 22 - 31 with autoimmune hypothyroidism and confirmed trab autoantibodies in their serum . evidence of opg autoantibodies is present in lanes 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 . the lower panel shows the western blot stained for immunoglobulin to show equal loading of the gel . fig7 : prevalence in multiple sclerosis : representative immunoprecipitation assay from unselected patients with multiple sclerosis . opg antibody is demonstrated in lane 9 . the bottom panel shows the same blot probed with anti human igg demonstrating equal loading . overall prevalence in multiple sclerosis from preliminary cohort of 20 patients was 10 %. lane 1 is a negative control and lane 2 is a sample from the index patient . fig8 : prevalence in further disease cohorts . a : representative immunoprecipitation assay from unselected patients with coeliac disease . opg antibody is demonstrated in lanes 10 to 12 . the bottom panel shows the same blot probed with anti human ig demonstrating equal loading . lane 1 is a negative control , lane 2 is the index patient . b : representative immunoprecipitation assay from patients with rheumatoid arthritis ( lanes 3 to 7 ) and hypothyroidism ( lanes 8 - 10 ). lanes 11 - 12 were healthy controls . again lane 1 is a negative control and lane 2 the index patient . c : immunoprecipitation assay demonstrating presence of opg antibody in unselected patients with severe osteoporosis ( samples in lanes 3 to 12 ). the patients in lanes 6 & amp ; 8 also had treated hypothyroidism . lane 1 is a negative control , lane 2 is the index patient . fig9 : titre of antibody and bone mineral density . the intensity of the bands seen with severe osteoporosis appears more marked than in the autoimmune cohorts where typically osteoporosis was less severe . though the immunoprecipitation assay is not truly quantifiable , standardising results for loading of serum and against the positive control suggests a modest , statistically significant , correlation between intensity of the opg band and bone mineral density ( r =− 0 . 33 , p = 0 . 023 ). a 40 - year old caucasian man presented following a low trauma fracture to his left clavicle which occurred whilst playing with his son . he had been previously fit and healthy , with no fracture history despite regularly playing rugby into his late 30 &# 39 ; s . dual energy x - ray absorptiometry ( dexa ) was performed and demonstrated low bone mineral density ( bmd ) with a t - score of − 6 . 6 at the spine , and − 2 . 9 at the femoral neck . at this time routine investigations were carried out , showing an elevated alkaline phosphatase ( alp ) of 2601 u / l ( normal range 25 - 120 u / l ) and this was shown to be of bony origin with isoenzyme studies . the patient also had an elevated serum phosphate of 2 . 36 mmol / l ( normal range 0 . 8 - 1 . 4 mmol / l ). full blood count , urea and electrolytes , liver function tests , serum calcium , albumin levels and a short synacthen ( acth ) test were all normal at this time . serum parathyroid hormone ( pth ) level was low at 8 ng / l ( normal range 10 - 65 ng / l ), and the patients level of serum 25 ( oh ) d was shown to be within the normal range at 35 ng / l ( normal range 25 - 150 ng / l ). for a year prior to presentation the patient had noticed a lack of energy and intolerance to cold weather , and therefore was screened for hypothyroidism . his serum free thyroxine was shown to be & lt ; 5 pmol / l ( normal range 10 - 20 pmol / l ) and his thyroid stimulating hormone ( tsh ) level was high at & gt ; 65 mu / l ( normal range 2 - 5 mu / l ). anti - thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies were detected at a level of 243 u / ml ( normal range 0 - 82 u / ml ), but tests for tsh receptor blocking autoantibodies were all negative . serum testosterone and gonadotrophins were normal , and the patient was commenced on l - thyroxine 100 mcg / day for treatment of confirmed hypothyroidism . alp levels continued to rise to 3539 u / l and the patient developed hypercalcaemia with a serum calcium level of 2 . 8 mmol / l ( normal range 2 . 1 - 2 . 6 mmol / l ). at this time the level of serum pth and 1 . 25 ( oh ) d were undetectable . the urinary calcium / creatinine ratio was elevated to 4 . 78 ( normal & lt ; 0 . 5 ) as is consistent with a resorptive mechanism of hypercalcaemia , which was then resolved with intravenous rehydration . extensive investigations were performed to exclude occult malignancy including bone marrow aspirate , ct abdomen and thorax and myeloma screen but the results were unremarkable and a radionuclide bone scan showed diffusely increased tracer uptake throughout the skeleton without focal lesions ( fig1 a and 1 b ) transilic bone biopsy showed high bone turnover with dramatic increase in osteoclast and osteoblast activity with woven bone ( fig1 c ). there was a mild increase in extent of osteoid seams , but osteoid thickness was normal ( fig1 d ). titres of transglutaminase iga antibodies were raised at 101 u / l ( normal range 5 - 30 u / l ) and celiac disease was confirmed by a small bowel biopsy . treatment was started for this with a strict gluten - free diet , ergocalciferol 10 , 000 units / day and calcium supplementation of 1 g / day . at follow - up 6 months later the patient had an alp level of 1000 u / l however his osteoporosis had worsened producing a t - score of − 7 . 1 on repeat dexa . the patient suffered a low trauma fracture of his left humerus , and lost 6 cm in height due to multiple vertebral fractures . at this time repeat duodenal biopsy demonstrated normalisation of bowel histology and the patients serum 1 . 25 ( oh ) d levels had were within the normal range . serum osteoprotegerin ( opg ) levels were measured by elisa ( biomedica , oxford biosystems , oxford uk ) on two occasions a month apart , demonstrating levels of 0 . 78 μmol / l and 0 . 47 μmol / l respectively ( normal range 0 . 14 - 130 μmol / l ) at the same times serum total rankl levels were 0 . 152 and 0 . 143 nmol / l ( normal range 0 - 10 nmol / l ) as measured by elisa ( apotech , epalinges , switzerland ). in light of his continued clinical deterioration the patient was treated with 3 infusions of 4 mg zoledronic acid over a 3 - month period . following the initial dose serum calcium levels decreased to 1 . 91 mmol / l and this was accompanied by an elevation in pth to 163 ng / l , and 1 . 25 ( oh ) 2 d 3 to 992 pmol / l ( normal range 15 - 150 pmol / l ). following completion of the treatment regime all serum derangements had returned to within normal ranges . at follow - up 42 months after the initial presentation the patient had not experienced any further fractures ; his height had remained stable , and repeat dexa demonstrated an improvement in t - score to − 1 . 7 . non fasting serum samples were obtained from the patient on several occasions throughout his illness , and from 10 healthy age matched male controls . further screening was carried out in 20 samples from patients with celiac disease and 14 with primary hypothyroidism . protein content was measured using the bicinchonic acid assay ( pierce ). for the immunoprecipitation assays , we incubated patient or control serum at 1 in 100 dilution with 12 . 5 ng recombinant human opg ( r & amp ; d systems ) and protein g coated agarose beads ( calbiochem ) which had been pre - incubated with 5 % albumin to reduce non - specific binding . following incubation for 1 hour at 37 ° c ., the protein g agarose beads were spun down , and washed 5 times with pbs . after the final wash the beads were spun down , resuspended in 30 μl reducing sample buffer and incubated at 90 ° c . for 5 minutes . after allowing the samples to cool down , the beads were spun down and the supernatant was loaded onto a 12 % polyacrylamide gel ( biorad criterion ) and electrophoresis performed at 200 v for 60 min . after electrophoresis , the proteins were transferred to a charged nylon membrane by western blotting and the membrane probed with a mouse monoclonal antibody to human opg ( abcam ), with detection by a peroxidase conjugated donkey anti - mouse antibody ( jackson ) at a 1 / 5000 dilution . loading of the samples was assessed by probing the blot with peroxidase conjugated goat anti - human antibody ( jackson ) at a 1 / 5000 dilution . immunolabeled bands were detected using chemiluminescence ( supersignal pierce ) on a syngene genegnome imager . we studied the effects of the patient &# 39 ; s serum and control sera on rankl induced nfκb activation using hek293 cells which had been stably transfected with a nfκb - responsive luciferase reporter vector ( cambridge biosciences ). the cells were maintained in dmem supplemented with 10 % fetal calf serum and hygromycin ( roche ), but were serum starved for 2 hours prior to rankl stimulation and maintained thereafter in dmem with 2 % cytokine deplete tch supplement ( mp biomedicals ). serum samples were purified using protein g spin columns ( pierce ) according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions to avoid any non specific serum effect . human recombinant rankl ( prosckelia , 100 ng / ml ) was incubated for 1 h at 37 ° c . with either opg alone ( r & amp ; d systems , 100 to 400 ng / ml ), opg with serum ( 1 : 40 ), or vehicle . after serum starving cells were stimulated with human rankl preparations for 4 hours . next the cells were lysed and the lysates analysed for luciferase activity using the steady glo reagent ( promega ) using a biotek synergy ht platereader . all reporter assays were run with 5 replicates in 96 well plate containing 5 × 10 4 cells per well . the patient described here presented at the age of 40 with severe , high turnover osteoporosis associated with the development of celiac and thyroid disease . we have demonstrated novel antibodies to opg and shown that the patient &# 39 ; s serum , but not control serum , reversed the inhibitory effects of opg on rankl induced rank signaling in vitro . this is the first report of a clinical illness due to the spontaneous development of antibodies to opg . we are aware of the fact that therapeutic administration of a recombinant opg construct ( amgn - 0007 ) in one patient resulted in the development of antibodies to this product . however this was not associated with a clinical illness . the mechanisms by which opg antibodies developed in this patient remain unclear , but auto - antibodies to circulating proteins have previously been described in patients with autoimmune disease ( 10 ). bone density measurements had not been performed in our patient prior to his presenting illness , but an inherited form of osteoporosis is excluded by the lack of a positive family history and the fact that he had never sustained a fracture despite leading a highly active lifestyle that included playing rugby . it is also extremely unlikely that either the celiac disease or hypothyroidism contributed substantially to this illness . celiac disease can be associated with osteoporosis and osteomalacia due to malabsorption of calcium , vitamin d and other nutrients . the severity of the osteoporosis and high bone turnover in the presence of only a mild mineralization defect is out of keeping with what one would expect in celiac disease and treatment with a gluten - free diet , calcium supplements and vitamin d failed to influence progression of the osteoporosis substantially . we also considered the possibility that the autoimmune thyroid disease might have contributed to the osteoporosis in light of a previous report which suggested that tsh inhibits bone remodelling ( 11 ). to investigate this possibility we screened for the presence of tsh receptor blocking antibodies which conceivably could have blocked an inhibitory effect of the raised tsh levels on bone turnover but these were negative . in this regard it should be noted that when bone abnormalities are seen in adult hypothyroidism , it is typically a low bone turnover state which is in complete contrast to the clinical picture described here . in view of this it seems extremely unlikely that the osteoporosis was in any way related to the hypothyroidism , which is in keeping with the results of other studies which have indicated that it is thyroid hormone , rather than tsh which is primarily responsible for the regulation of bone remodelling ( 12 ). the florid bone disease in our patient fits well with the reported phenotype seen in inherited opg deficiency in mice ( 4 ) and humans ( 2 ; 3 ) and since we have found no other sufficient explanation it seems almost certain that the development of antibodies to opg is the cause of his illness . we subsequently showed the presence of anti - opg antibodies in 5 out of 20 additional celiac patients , indicating that these antibodies may be fairly common in these auto - immune patients . the antibody levels appeared to be much lower in these than in the original patient however , which one would expect would lead to a less severe effect on bone turnover . the severity of the bone disease and clinical deterioration despite treatment of the celiac disease and supplementation with calcium and vitamin d is matched only by the remarkable recovery that occurred in response to treatment with the potent inhibitor of osteoclastic bone resorption , zoledronic acid . our studies demonstrate that autoantibodies to opg can develop spontaneously in the context of autoimmune disease , raising the possibility that antibodies to opg might contribute to the pathogenesis of raised bone turnover and osteoporosis in other inflammatory diseases . in addition to the identification of autoantibodies to opg in celiac patients , there may be a correlation with bone density also and as such , bone density measurements may also be carried out in conjunction with autoantibody detection to opg in celiac patients . indeed , the present inventors have observed that some celiac patients with opg autoantibodies do have lower bone mineral density . finally , the present inventors also looked at a conventional serum rankl assay . this experiment involved performing an elisa for serum rankl in a patient using an assay which detects the free fraction of serum rankl ( biomedica , vienna , austria ) according to the manufacturers instructions . the samples were assayed undiluted and at dilutions in water . the results ( see table 1 ) showed an increase in rankl as the samples were diluted , consistent with the presence of an antibody that was interfering with the binding of rankl to opg which in this assay is used to “ capture ” the rankl . this perhaps suggests that currently available serum rankl assays are being affected by opg autoantibodies . the patient himself ; several samples were obtained at various points through his illness . 10 age - matched healthy male control patients (+/− 10 years of index patients age ) all samples were obtained non - fasting and protein count was measured using the bicinchonic acid assay ( pierce ). collected serum samples were stored at 4 ° c . and purified within one week of collection . the purification process followed the standard protocol for protein g spin columns ( pierce ). for the immunoprecipitation assays , protein g coated agarose beads ( calbiochem ) were pre - incubated for 1 hour at 37 . 5 ° c . with 5 % human recombinant albumin to reduce non - specific binding . beads were then incubated for 1 hour at 37 . 5 ° c . with serum samples at a 1 / 100 dilution with 12 . 5 ng of homodimeric recombinant human opg ( r & amp ; d systems ). beads were then washed five times with pre - warmed pbs , suspended in 30 ml of reducing sample buffer and incubated at 90 ° c . for 5 minutes . following brief centrifugation the supernatant was loaded into a 12 % polyacylamide gel ( biorad criterion ) which underwent electrophoresis at 200v for 45 minutes . following western blotting the membrane was probed with a mouse monoclonal antibody to human opg ( abcam ), with detection by a peroxidase conjugated donkey anti - mouse antibody ( jackson ) at a 1 / 5000 dilution . immunolabelled bands were detected using chemiluminescence ( supersignal pierce ) on a genegnome imager ( syngene ). equal loading of samples was confirmed by stripping each blot , and probing for total immunoglobulin with peroxidase conjugated goat anti - human antibody ( jackson ) at a 1 / 5000 dilution . during experimentation , the index patient &# 39 ; s serum was used to provide a positive control band , and a negative control band was provided by using rabbit anti - actin antibody . the effects of immunoglobulin purified from the patient &# 39 ; s serum and control sera on rankl induced nfκb activation were studied using stably transfected hek293 cells with a nfκb - responsive luciferase reporter vector ( cambridge biosciences ). cells were maintained in dmem supplemented with 10 % fetal calf serum and hygromycin ( roche ). cells were starved for 2 hours prior to stimulation and maintained thereafter in dmem with 2 % cytokine deplete tch supplement ( mp biomedicals ). all assays were run with five replicated in a 96 well plate , containing 5 × 10 4 cells per well . the cells were stimulated with 100 ng / ml human recombinant rankl for 1 hour at 37 ° c . in the presence of 100 - 400 ng / ml opg ( r & amp ; d systems ) and in the presence or absence of immunoglobulins at a 1 / 40 dilution . following stimulation cells were lysed and analyzed for luciferase activity using steady glo reagent ( promega ) with a biotek synergy ht plate reader . bone density data was obtained for patients having undergone previous dexa scanning as part of their clinical management . each disease cohort was split into two groups ; patients with evidence of opg autoantibodies in their serum , and patients without evidence of opg autoantibodies in their serum . mean bmd data for these two cohorts were statistically compared using a t - test to establish whether a significant difference was present between the two groups . a confidence interval of 95 % was used and significance was achieved if p & lt ; 0 . 05 . the patient &# 39 ; s serum immunoprecipitated opg ; shown by the appearance of a strong band at 55 kd on the western blot ( fig2 ). serum from 10 healthy male control patients yielded negative results . the ip was repeated in the presence of gliadin in order to see whether opg autoantibodies cross - reacted with the protein causing an immune reaction in patients with celiac disease . it was shown that the presence of gliadin had no effect on the ability of the patient &# 39 ; s serum to immunoprecipitate opg . bmd data was available for 36 patients from this cohort of 46 patients with celiac disease . the mean bmd t - score values in this cohort were − 1 . 116 for patients without opg autoantibodies and − 2 . 237 for those patients with evidence of opg autoantibodies . this difference was statistically significant ( p = 0 . 011 ; significance if p ≦ 0 . 05 ). bmd t - scores are standardised against young healthy controls , whilst bmd z - scores are standardised against age matched controls . mean age of patients with evidence of opg autoantibodies in their serum was 67 . 5 years , whilst mean age of patients without evidence of opg autoantibodies was 54 . 2 years . patients without opg autoantibodies had a mean spine z - score of − 0 . 812 , whilst patients with opg autoantibodies had a mean spine z - score of − 0 . 431 . this difference was not statistically significant ( p = 0 . 254 ). evidence of opg autoantibodies were also detected in 7 out of 10 patients with severe idiopathic osteoporosis and 4 out of 31 patients with autoimmune hypothyroidism ( fig5 and 6 ). evidence of opg antibodies was also seen in 2 out of 20 patients with multiple sclerosis ( fig7 ) and 2 out of 10 patients with rheumatoid arthritis ( fig8 b ). the mean bmd t - scores for the small cohort of patients with severe idiopathic osteoporosis were − 3 . 6 for patients without opg autoantibodies and − 3 . 4 for patients with evidence of opg autoantibodies in their serum . this difference was not significant ( p = 0 . 36 ). bmd z - scores were not available for this group of patients . unfortunately , bmd data for the cohort of patients with autoimmune hypothyroidism were not available . addition of rankl to the cell line used for the signalling assay caused significant activation of reporter gene expression ( fig2 b ). this was shown to be inhibited by an equal concentration of human recombinant opg in the presence of the immunoglobulin fraction of control serum , however in the presence of the immunoglobulin fraction of the patient &# 39 ; s serum the inhibitory effect of opg was lost . addition of opg at higher concentration overcame this inhibition ( 400 ng / ml ). in the absence of rankl addition of either patient immunoglobulin , or control immunoglobulin was shown to have no significant effect on reporter gene expression . the rank signalling assay demonstrated that the addition of the patient &# 39 ; s purified serum to opg inhibited rankl caused loss of the inhibitory effect of opg in vitro . the patient discussed in this study presented in his 40s with low trauma fracture to his clavicle , and was shown to have developed severe high turnover osteoporosis , associated with celiac disease and autoimmune hypothyroidism . the patient was shown to have circulating neutralising autoantibodies to opg ; the patient &# 39 ; s serum was shown to inhibit the effect of opg on rankl - induced nfκb signalling in vitro . serum taken from age - matched healthy control patients did not have this effect . this is the first report of a bone disease occurring in association with the spontaneous development of autoantibodies to opg . the mechanism by which opg autoantibodies developed in this patient remains unclear , however autoantibodies to other circulating proteins have been reported to develop in patients with autoimmune disease [ 12 ], and presumably opg had become the target of an endogenous immune response in this patient . other possible diagnoses for this patient have been considered . a congenital inherited form of osteoporosis was excluded early as a possible cause , due to the late onset of the disease , and the fact that the patient had regularly undertaken high contact sports such as rugby into his late 30s , yet had no fracture history . osteoporosis and osteomalacia are accepted complications of celiac disease due to deficiency of vitamin d and calcium [ 2 , 3 ]. these options were discarded due to the severity of osteoporosis , quick onset and extremely high level of bone turnover , and also the failure of usual treatments for celiac disease to improve bmd , including a strict gluten - free diet and calcium and vitamin d supplements . a diagnosis of fibrogenesis imperfecta ossium ( fio ) was also considered as patients usually present in adulthood with fragility fractures . however the clinical features of this patient were distinctly different to patients with fio , which is characterised by trabecular thickening on x - ray , accumulation of thick osteoid on bone biopsy and a poor response to treatment [ 13 ]. this study has also demonstrated the presence of opg autoantibodies in small patient cohorts of patients with autoimmune hypothyroidism and severe idiopathic osteoporosis . the patients identified to have opg autoantibodies were shown to have a lower mean bmd value than those without opg antibodies and when comparing the presence or absence of opg autoantibodies against bmd t - scores within the cohort of patients with celiac disease a significant difference was identified . bmd is a complex trait which is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors , and as such data for other risk factors that may have affected bmd scores were sought . the age of all patients within the celiac disease cohort was known and a mean age difference of over 10 years was identified ( mean age of patients with opg autoantibodies = 67 . 5 years , mean age of patients without opg autoantibodies = 54 . 2 years ). following this finding , a comparison of bmd z - scores and presence or absence of opg autoantibodies was made , as bmd z - scores correct against age - matched healthy controls , whereas bmd t - scores are corrected against young healthy controls [ 15 ]. this result was not statistically significant ( p = 0 . 254 ), however this is not surprising given the large difference in age between the two small cohorts . it is extremely tempting to speculate that the opg antibodies contribute to the pathogenesis of osteoporosis in autoimmune disease , and those patients with opg autoantibodies are those that suffer with worse osteoporosis . it is also exciting to establish the presence of opg autoantibodies in patients with unexplained severe osteoporosis . no healthy controls showed evidence of opg autoantibodies , and therefore it is possible that the presence of opg autoantibodies in a patient &# 39 ; s serum could act as a distinct marker for the future development of severe osteoporosis . this would allow clinicians to establish which of their patients are at a high risk of developing even idiopathic osteoporosis , allowing close monitoring and earlier intervention to reduce environmental and lifestyle risk factors . however , it is important for researchers to bear in mind that bmd is an extremely complex trait which is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors throughout a patient &# 39 ; s life , and therefore the results obtained in this study should be interpreted with some caution , particularly with the small cohort sizes studied . unfortunately robust analysis of the data when corrected for age differences between cohorts of patients with celiac disease is not statistically significant , and further research will be necessary to establish whether a truly significant relationship exists between opg autoantibodies and development of low bmd . 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