• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.1815-1819
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• 2009

Based on the soft and rigid extents, tissues are mainly divided into two groups in mammals, soft tissues including heart, lung, kidney and brain, and hard tissues including tendon, cartilage, teeth and bone. Among various tissues, bone, a dynamic rigid organ, is continuously remodeled by the opposing functional activity between bone formation by osteoblasts and bone destruction by osteoclasts. Bone protects the soft tissues and provides mineral reservoirs, which can supply the mineral needs of other soft tissues to normally maintain cellular function. While calcification in bone is an important action to fundamentally support the body and protect the soft tissues, calcification in soft tissues, including the heart, aorta, kidney, lung and spleen, results in severe organ damages, eventually causing sudden death. A growing body of evidence indicates that the osteoporotic patient who are aging, post-menopausal, diabetes and chronic kidney disease simultaneously represent a high clinical incidence of soft tissue calcification, illustrating a link between soft tissue calcification and bone decalcification (osteoporosis). This study will review what is currently known about the connection between bone decalcification and soft tissue calcification.