Project Overview
The CanBSDS Research team comprises clinicians and scientists from across Canada. The team has received CIHR funding of more than $1.3 million for an unprecedented multi-year study of the development of bone structure, density and strength in children with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
The project will compare bone development of preteen-aged children with and without T1D over the course of four years. Using a technique called high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT), as well as other scanners used to diagnose bone diseases like osteoporosis, the team will attempt to map the bone development of children during the time of their growth spurt when rapid skeletal development occurs.
The team's hypothesis is that bone growth in children with T1D differs. This study will yield information on how it differs and when it differs.
Findings will guide the development of therapies or treatments to optimize bone growth in children with T1D.
Overall Goal
To characterize and compare sex-specific development of bone over the critical years of skeletal growth from childhood to adolescence (ages 10-15) between children with T1D and healthy controls. CanBSDS is designed to particularly tease out the independent effects of T1D, growth in stature, hormones, body composition, muscle strength and physical activity which contribute to bone development, after controlling for maturation and potential confounders (e.g., body mass, nutrition).
Objective 1
Assess how and when sex-specific bone developmental trajectories at the radius and tibia (HR-pQCT-derived bone strength, size, structure, mass and density) and total body, lumbar spine and hip (DXA-derived BMC, aBMD, quantitative vertebral morphometry and hip structure) will differ between T1D and control cohorts relative to the critical period of rapid skeletal growth in puberty (i.e., age at peak height velocity).
Objective 2
Assess why bone trajectories differ between T1D and control cohorts by identifying the role of body composition, site-specific muscle force and physical activity on differences in bone properties in female and male children with and without T1D.
Objective 3
Assess why T1D may impair sex-specific bone development by exploring the role of disease-related factors (e.g., duration, glucose control, hormones and markers of bone formation and resorption) and fracture history on bone trajectories of children with T1D.