The Bone Core of the Program Project will provide shared facilities and services for processing and interpretation of tissues from the animal models utilized in all projects of the program. The overall goal of the core facility is to provide centralized histologic and image analysis support for investigators in the project. The following services will be provided: experimental design/consultation regarding endpoint analyses for histologic specimens, processing of osseous tissues for histologic analysis (decalcified and undecalcified sections, bone histomorphometric analysis of osseous sections (i.e., interpretation), and histologic analysis of soft tissue metastases or other soft tissue lesions with their pathologic diagnosis. In addition to histologic support, the core will provide services of FAXITRON microradiography and dual x-ray absorptometry (DEXA). The bone core will build on existing expertise in the School of Dentistry that includes the processing of soft tissue specimens and decalcified hard tissue specimens. These existing activities will be facilitated for investigators in the program through the staff of the bone core. In addition, new services of processing undecalcified osseous specimens will be initiated using plastic embedding techniques. The core facility will provide interpretation of the pathologic lesions (hard and soft tissue) through the expertise of a Board Certified Veterinary Pathologist, Dr. Thomas J. Rosol. Complete static and dynamic bone histomorphometric analysis will be performed by an experienced bone histomorphometrist (Yao) in conjunction with our consultant and highly regarded bone histomorphometrist, Dr. Robert Recker. Core support of these services will promote efficiency of specimen analysis and facilitate interactions between projects through the similar model systems and their common analyses. A significant benefit to the program as a group will be a standardized format for analysis of specimens from the common animal models that will be using different experimental approaches/targets (e.g., PAR1, SDF and CXCR4, BMPs and PTHrP). This will provide valuable information that can be shared and compared across the projects in the program.
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