Paget disease of bone
G. David Roodman, Jolene J. Windle
G. David Roodman, Jolene J. Windle
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Science in Medicine

Paget disease of bone

Abstract

Paget disease of bone (PD) is characterized by excessive bone resorption in focal areas followed by abundant new bone formation, with eventual replacement of the normal bone marrow by vascular and fibrous tissue. The etiology of PD is not well understood, but one PD-linked gene and several other susceptibility loci have been identified, and paramyxoviral gene products have been detected in pagetic osteoclasts. In this review, the pathophysiology of PD and evidence for both a genetic and a viral etiology for PD will be discussed.

Authors

G. David Roodman, Jolene J. Windle

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Osteoclasts in normal bone and in Paget’s disease. (A) Normal osteoclast...
Osteoclasts in normal bone and in Paget’s disease. (A) Normal osteoclasts are large multinucleated cells that contain between 3 and 20 nuclei per cell. (B) In contrast, pagetic osteoclasts are markedly increased in number and size and can contain up to 100 nuclei (arrow). (C) On ultrastructural examination, pagetic osteoclasts have characteristic nuclear (arrowhead) and occasional cytoplasmic inclusions containing paracrystalline arrays that are similar to paramyxoviral nucleocapsids.