Meeting Abstract
Irreversible pathologic mineralization of soft tissue occurs with numerous human diseases and can be a side effect of some medical procedures and traumatic injury. Because the mechanisms of this mineralization process are not well understood, there are no consistently effective treatment strategies besides surgical excision, which does not always prevent reoccurrence of the bony lesions. Animal models that naturally produce mineralized deposits (i.e., osteoderms) in their skin have never been utilized for studying these pathologic mechanisms in human disease. In this study, alligator osteoderms were collected at multiple time points up to one year post-hatching. Bone formation in the skin was documented using classical histological staining and antibody staining for mechanistic markers of epithelial/endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition and ossification. The development of osteoderms in crocodilians resembles that of pathologic mineralization in human skin; namely through fibrosis and subsequent metaplastic conversion of connective tissue to bone. This study shows that using an animal model that undergoes natural soft tissue mineralization allows a multi-system, holistic approach to studying the analogous human disease process, which is not possible with lab-generated models (e.g., cell culture or implant specimens). Crocodilians may also prove useful as models for other human disorders that involve soft tissue mineralization including calcification of atherosclerotic plaques, connective tissue diseases, and autoimmune diseases.
