Beata Lecka-Czernik
University of Toledo, OH·Physiology
Bone is usually thought of as scaffolding, but keeping it healthy is one of the body's biggest energy expenses: the skeleton is constantly being broken down and rebuilt, a process called remodeling. With age, people lose bone and their energy metabolism falters, a pairing that leads to both fractures and diabetes.
- Fields
Physiology
Pharmacology
Biochemistry
- Topics
osteocytes
bone remodeling
sclerostin
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Determine how fuel choice and aging change osteocyte function and whether these effects depend on PPARG, using aged C57BL/6 and osteocyte-specific PPARG knockout mice, bone organ cultures and MLO-Y4 osteocyte-like cells with PPARG knocked down, with transcriptomics and quantitative proteomics.
- Compare the PPARG protein interaction partners in osteocytes versus fat cells after treatment with the full agonist rosiglitazone or the inverse agonist SR10171, using quantitative tandem mass tag proteomics, to identify a modulator beneficial for both bone and metabolism.
- Define how the PPARG protein complex assembles on PPARG response element sequences in the promoter of Sost, the gene for the bone-formation inhibitor sclerostin, as a function of aging and of pharmacological modulation.
- Test whether osteocyte endocrine activity links skeletal and systemic energy metabolism, evaluating the idea that bone acts as a body "energostat" through co-culture and metabolic characterization.
More about the research
The cells that direct remodeling are osteocytes, which make up 90-95% of bone cells and sit embedded in the mineralized matrix, yet almost nothing is known about what fuels they burn or how that changes with age.
Why it matters
Fractures and diabetes often arrive together in older adults, and the drugs that activate PPARG to control blood sugar have complicated effects on bone. By defining how this receptor governs osteocyte fuel use and sclerostin production with age, the work could guide selective PPARG modulators intended to improve bone quality and energy metabolism at the same time in elderly patients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Eben Estell
University of New England, ME·Physiology·Early-career
Map the signaling pathway irisin triggers inside osteoclasts, the bone-dissolving cells, by confirming candidate receptors including integrin αVβ5 and tracking the intracellular steps that lead to differentiation and resorption in culture.
Neha Dole
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, AR·Physiology·Early-career
Identify which bone cells produce Lipocalin-2 (LCN2), a secreted protein that rises with age, and define their contribution to skeletal aging in mice.
Thiagarajan Ganesh
University of Missouri-Kansas City, MO·Biomedical Engineering
Develop multiplexed confocal imaging models of osteocytes and their dendritic networks in loaded and unloaded mouse bone to predict how these cells respond to altered mechanical loads with aging.
The school
University of Toledo: 10 labs on PI Pages, $73M a year on research, 120 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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