The Genetics of PPARG and the Skeleton

Osteoporosis is a complex metabolic bone disorder. Recently it has been appreciated that the “obesity in bone” phenomenon occurs at the expense of bone formation, and that is a key component of the pathology of this disease. Mouse models with altered bone expression levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) impact bone formation, but genetic studies connecting PPARG polymorphisms to skeletal phenotypes in humans have proven to be less than satisfactory. One missense polymorphism in exon one has been linked to low bone mineral density (BMD), but the most studied polymorphism, Pro12Ala, has not yet been examined in the context of skeletal phenotype. The studies to date are a promising start in leading to our understanding of the genetic contribution of PPARG to the phenotypes of BMD and fracture risk.