A method of screening potential therapeutic substances that may be useful
in the treatment of osteoporosis is provided herein utilizing primary
osteoblast precursor cell cultures to determine the mitogenic effect of
the tested agents. This method comprises preparation of the primary
cultures from osteoporotic patients for the expression of several
intracellular proteins in early and late osteoblast differentiation
phases, expression of other proteins involved in matrix synthesis, and
quantitative analysis of the cellular proliferation rate. The expression
of such intracellular proteins and cell proliferation in the cultures
derived from osteoporotic patients are quantitatively compared to primary
osteoblast cell cultures from non-osteoporotic patients that are
standardized for the same approximate age and sex.
