Lindsay R et al. (2006) A novel tetracycline labeling schedule for longitudinal evaluation of the short-term effects of anabolic therapy with a single iliac crest bone biopsy: early actions of teriparatide. J Bone Miner Res 21: 366–373
Tetracyclines bind to newly calcified bone, and fluoresce under UV light. These characteristics can be used to assess bone formation: after taking oral tetracycline on two occasions (double labeling), an iliac-crest biopsy is obtained. The rate of bone growth equals the distance between labeled areas of bone, over the time interval between tetracycline doses. To obtain longitudinal data on bone formation, however, the double-labeling and biopsy procedures must be repeated. Here, Lindsay et al. report a novel quadruple-labeling procedure, which allows short-term longitudinal information on bone formation to be obtained from a single biopsy. Following an initial double-labeling procedure, a second double-labeling procedure is performed, several weeks later, using a second tetracycline with a different fluorescence pattern. Changes in bone formation that have occurred between the two sets of labels can be measured.
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