(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) Hong Kong University Research Says Infection with New Coronary Virus May Cause Bone Loss
China News Agency, Hong Kong, May 19 (Reporter Han Xingtong) The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) announced on the 19th that a study found that infection with the new coronavirus may induce inflammation of osteoclasts, which may be severe in the later stages of suffering from new coronary pneumonia and recovery of bone loss.
The research team believes that this may be an overlooked complication of the new crown.
Many studies have found that new coronary pneumonia not only causes lung infection and inflammation, but also causes sequelae in different organ systems of patients in the later stage of recovery, which is called "long new crown".
However, the research team believes that there is still a lack of comprehensive understanding of the clinical symptoms caused by infection with the new coronavirus, especially the impact on bone tissue metabolism.
It is reported that the research was co-led by Professor Yang Weiguo of the Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, and Clinical Associate Professor of the Department of Microbiology, Chen Fuhe, of the School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, HKU.
The relevant research results have been published in the international academic journal Nature Communications.
In order to study the effect of the new coronavirus on bone tissue metabolism, the research team injected the new coronavirus into the nose of the Syrian hamster model and collected their infected bone tissue samples.
Using three-dimensional micron-scale computed tomography, the team found that infection with the new coronavirus can cause severe bone loss ranging from 20% to 50% in the trabecular bone structure in long bones and vertebrae.
Bone loss caused by acute infection will last longer.
The study further found that bone loss is closely related to the dysregulation of cytokines induced by infection with the new coronavirus.
This pathological osteopenia is closely related to the inflammation of osteoclasts (a type of cells responsible for bone tissue resorption), and the dysregulation of cytokines caused by infection with the new coronavirus not only affects osteoclast differentiation, but also causes skeletal tissue Pro-inflammatory response, enhancing its effect on promoting osteoclast growth.
According to the research team, this study is the first in the world to use a Syrian hamster model that is close to human infection with the new coronavirus to study the effect of the new coronavirus on bone tissue metabolism.
The results of the study demonstrate that pathological bone loss caused by 2019-nCoV may be an overlooked complication that needs to be investigated more extensively in the follow-up of 2019-nCoV patients.
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