Project Description
Paget’s Disease: Paget’s Disease is a disorder of bone remodeling that features large and multinucleated osteoclasts (cells in bone that control bone resorption). Increase osteoclast activity is accompanied by a increase in osteoblast (bone cells that form new bone) activity but the bone that is formed is abnormal in microstructure, and is often referred to as “woven bone.”
Pagetic bone is weak and can break easily, especially in weight bearing sites (hips and pelvis). Paget’s disease can occur in a single bone (“monostotic”) or multiple bones (“polyostotic”). Affected bones are often painful and enlarged due to the increase in blood vessel formation in affected bone, that may also render the skin over that bone red and warm to touch.
The cause of Paget’s disease is unclear but it seems to occur in genetically susceptible people whose giant osteoclasts are infected with a viral particle that resembles the Mumps virus. Paget’s disease can be effectively treated with intravenous bisphosphonates.
