Genetic factors of osteoporosis and fracture and the application of genetic information to the preventive medicine

Osteoporosis is a common disease caused by multi-factors including genetic factor and environmental and life-style factors. The tailor-made prevention and medicine based on the individual data including genetic information for osteoporosis is expected in the post-genomic era. Genetic susceptibility of osteoporosis has been analyzed by linkage and association study. A number of studies have been shown the association between bone mass and polymorphisms in candidate gene, however, these results have been poor reproducible. Some studies have been reported the interaction between genetic factor and life-style factors on bone mass. Those results have suggested the potential application of genetic information to the prevention of osteoporosis by life-style modification. Further studies should be conducted to develop the practical tailor-made prevention.