Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Oranges and Bones
09 February 2013

Oranges and Bones

Today the citizens of Ivrea in Italy will be armed with oranges, ready to face off in Italy’s largest food fight – the Battle of the Oranges. Being hit by a flying orange may be bad for your health, but stored up in these citrus bombs is the vital supplement vitamin C, long known to help maintain healthy bones and teeth. Extreme deficiency leads to scurvy and a more subtle lack of vitamin C is linked to brittle bones. This may be particularly important to those who have osteoporosis; a condition often seen in women after the menopause that results in fragile bones. Research in a mouse model for osteoporosis used micro computerised tomography of the spine to capture the bone loss seen in this condition (left). Adding vitamin C to the diets of these mice stimulated bone formation (right), illustrating its potential therapeutic benefits.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.