Bone's material flaws lead to disease
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - 14:56
in Biology & Nature
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The weak tendons and fragile bones characteristic of osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, stem from a genetic mutation that causes the incorrect substitution of a single amino acid in the chain of thousands of amino acids making up a collagen molecule, the basic building block of bone and tendon.