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Spine Formation Mechanism Discovered
According the National Scoliosis Foundation, scoliosis affects an estimated 6 million people in the United States. They account for more than 600,000 private physician office visits yearly.
Researchers at Stowers Institute’s Pourquié Lab have been able to isolate the mechanism that regulates the number of vertebrae an animal develops. They studies the developing embryos of mice, chicken, zebrafish and corn snakes. Published in Nature’s advanced online publication, researchers found the importance of the presomitic medosderm, which is the middle of three cell layers that creates an early stage. “It increases in size as the somites form and then gradually shrinks until it is exhausted, terminating the process when the appropriate number of somites have been formed.” This news comes at an ideal time as June is National Scoliosis Awareness Month, and these new findings are of particular interest to researchers examining congenital scoliosis.
According the National Scoliosis Foundation, scoliosis affects an estimated 6 million people in the United States. They account for more than 600,000 private physician office visits yearly. The onset of the disease occurs usually between 10-15 years of age. Almost 30,000 children are given a brace for their scoliosis each year, and an estimated 38,000 have spinal fusion surgery. While it occurs equally among males and females, females are eight times more likely to develop scoliosis to a more severe degree. The foundation notes that there is limited information regarding “who will get it, why they get it, which will progress, or how far they will progress.” As a result, scoliosis patients often must deal with treatments are costly, invasive, and even ineffective.
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National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
