Absence of correlation between BMP-4 polymorphism and postmenopausal osteoporosis in Italian women

Several studies have demonstrated that bone has the power of regeneration a nd repair. BMPs (bone morphogenetic proteins) are involved in the determina tion of osteoblast phenotype and bone turnover, therefore genes coding for these proteins, like BMP-4, could be considered potential candidate genes f or osteoporosis. We investigated the association of BMP-4 gene polymorphism with osteoporosis in a cohort of 72 osteoporotic, postmenopausal women and 82 unrelated controls. We failed to detect any significant association bet ween this genetic marker and the disease.