Bone
The endocannabinoid system through CB2 signaling plays a key role in the maintenance of bone mass. CB2 is expressed in osteoblasts, osteocytes, and osteoclasts. CB2 agonists enhance endocortical osteoblast number and activity while restraining trabecular osteoclastogenesis. Another important effect is that CB2 agonists attenuates ovariectomy-induced bone loss while increasing cortical thickness. These findings suggest CB2 offers a potential molecular target for the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis.
Read more about this topic: Cannabinoid Receptor, Physiology
Famous quotes containing the word bone:
“Two wooden tubs of blue hydrangeas stand at the foot of the stone steps.
The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.
The grackles crack their throats of bone in the smooth air.
Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.
Pardie! Summer is like a fat beast, sleepy in mildew....”
—Wallace Stevens (18791955)
“We as women know that there are no disembodied processes; that all history originates in human flesh; that all oppression is inflicted by the body of one against the body of another; that all social change is built on the bone and muscle, and out of the flesh and blood, of human creators.”
—Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)
“Fowls in the frith,
Fishes in the flood,
And I must wax wod:
Much sorrow I walk with
For best of bone and blood.”
—Unknown. Fowls in the Frith. . .
Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds. Oxford University Press.