Ryan F Coghlan, Jon A Oberdorf, Susan Sienko, Michael D Aiona, Bruce A Boston, Kara J Connelly, Chelsea Bahney, Jeremie LaRouche, Sarah M Almubarak, Daniel T Coleman, Irute Girkontaite, Klaus von der Mark, Gregory P Lunstrum, William A Horton
Despite its importance as a key parameter of child health and development, growth velocity is difficult to determine in real time because skeletal growth is slow and clinical tools to accurately detect very small increments of growth do not exist. We report discovery of a marker for skeletal growth in infants and children. The intact trimeric noncollagenous 1 (NC1) domain of type X collagen, the marker we designated as CXM for Collagen X Marker, is a degradation by-product of endochondral ossification that is released into the circulation in proportion to overall growth plate activity...
December 6, 2017: Science Translational Medicine