Genetic link to fragile hips

Two genetic quirks that make women extra-vulnerable to hip fractures have been revealed by a study of post-menopausal women.

Tuan Nguyen at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, and his team followed the progress of 677 post-menopausal women for 14 years to hunt for gene variants that might put them at risk. In that time 69 of the women fractured a hip.Two genes emerged as significant: vitamin D receptor (VDR), which is involved in calcium processing, and collagen alpha 1 (COLIA1), which produces the main structural protein of bone.Women with two copies of a particular variant of VDR had 2.6 times the normal risk of hip fracture, while for those with two copies of a variant of COLIA1 the risk was 3.8 times normal. (Source: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, DOI: 10.1210/jc.2005-1153: New Scientist: October 2005.)