Compartment-specific skeletal involvement in systemic sclerosis characterized by peripheral QCT and serum osteoimmune mediators: a case-control study.
5 affiliations
- 1Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Móricz Zsigmond út 22, Debrecen, 4032, Hungary. [email protected].
- 2Doctoral School of Clinical Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary. [email protected].
- 3Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Móricz Zsigmond út 22, Debrecen, 4032, Hungary.
- 4Department of Biophysics and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
- 5Doctoral School of Clinical Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
Abstract
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is associated with increased bone fragility, yet early, compartment-specific alterations and their osteoimmunological correlates remain incompletely characterized. This study aimed to assess bone status in SSc using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) complemented by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), and to evaluate their associations with a targeted osteoimmunological biomarker panel and clinical risk scores. This prospective cross-sectional study included 40 women with SSc (disease duration ≤ 7 years from diagnosis) and 45 non-immune female controls, frequency-matched by age. Bone status was assessed by DXA (lumbar spine, femoral neck) and distal radius pQCT. Serum levels of routine bone and mineral metabolism markers, alongside a targeted panel of osteoimmunological mediators (OPG, OPN, PDGF-BB, ACP5, RANKL, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, DKK-1) using multiplex immunoassay were measured. FRAX scores were calculated to contextualize clinical fracture risk. With broadly comparable DXA-defined bone status, pQCT revealed significantly lower trabecular volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) in SSc, while total and cortical+subcortical vBMD were comparable. Routine biochemical markers showed substantial overlap between groups, whereas SSc patients exhibited a distinct osteoimmune profile with significantly elevated OPG, ACP5, RANKL, PDGF-BB, IL-6, IL-1β, DKK-1, and RANKL/OPG after FDR correction. Exploratory biomarker-bone associations did not remain significant after correction for multiple testing. In women with relatively early SSc, pQCT identified compartment-specific differences, particularly within the trabecular compartment, despite comparable DXA-defined bone status. A distinct osteoimmunological biomarker profile was also observed in SSc, providing complementary information on disease-related skeletal alterations, while specific biomarker-bone associations require further confirmation.
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BibTeX
@article{csige2026compartmentspecific,
title = {{Compartment-specific skeletal involvement in systemic sclerosis characterized by peripheral QCT and serum osteoimmune mediators: a case-control study.}},
author = {Dóra Csige and Ágnes Horváth and Monika Bodoki and István Rebenku and Sára Lipták-Lukácsik and Lilla Ramóna Pomázi and Zsófia Pethő and Sándor Mogyoróssy and Attila Hamar and Nóra Bodnár and Rebeka Falcsik and Katalin Hodosi and György Panyi and Szilvia Szamosi and Zoltán Szekanecz and Gabriella Szűcs and Edit Végh and Levente Bodoki},
journal = {Calcified tissue international},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1007/s00223-026-01624-5},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42911412},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Compartment-specific skeletal involvement in systemic sclerosis characterized by peripheral QCT and serum osteoimmune mediators: a case-control study.
AU - Dóra Csige
AU - Ágnes Horváth
AU - Monika Bodoki
AU - István Rebenku
AU - Sára Lipták-Lukácsik
AU - Lilla Ramóna Pomázi
AU - Zsófia Pethő
AU - Sándor Mogyoróssy
AU - Attila Hamar
AU - Nóra Bodnár
AU - Rebeka Falcsik
AU - Katalin Hodosi
AU - György Panyi
AU - Szilvia Szamosi
AU - Zoltán Szekanecz
AU - Gabriella Szűcs
AU - Edit Végh
AU - Levente Bodoki
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Calcified tissue international
DO - 10.1007/s00223-026-01624-5
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42911412
AB - Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is associated with increased bone fragility, yet early, compartment-specific alterations and their osteoimmunological correlates remain incompletely characterized. This study aimed to assess bone status in SSc using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) complemented by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), and to evaluate their associations with a targeted osteoimmunological biomarker panel and clinical risk scores. This prospective cross-sectional study included 40 women with SSc (disease duration ≤ 7 years from diagnosis) and 45 non-immune female controls, frequency-matched by age. Bone status was assessed by DXA (lumbar spine, femoral neck) and distal radius pQCT. Serum levels of routine bone and mineral metabolism markers, alongside a targeted panel of osteoimmunological mediators (OPG, OPN, PDGF-BB, ACP5, RANKL, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, DKK-1) using multiplex immunoassay were measured. FRAX scores were calculated to contextualize clinical fracture risk. With broadly comparable DXA-defined bone status, pQCT revealed significantly lower trabecular volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) in SSc, while total and cortical+subcortical vBMD were comparable. Routine biochemical markers showed substantial overlap between groups, whereas SSc patients exhibited a distinct osteoimmune profile with significantly elevated OPG, ACP5, RANKL, PDGF-BB, IL-6, IL-1β, DKK-1, and RANKL/OPG after FDR correction. Exploratory biomarker-bone associations did not remain significant after correction for multiple testing. In women with relatively early SSc, pQCT identified compartment-specific differences, particularly within the trabecular compartment, despite comparable DXA-defined bone status. A distinct osteoimmunological biomarker profile was also observed in SSc, providing complementary information on disease-related skeletal alterations, while specific biomarker-bone associations require further confirmation.
SN - 0171-967X
SN - 1432-0827
ER -