Designed to generate data and outcomes on bone and muscle health in both healthy people and those with disease, a novel repository at the Indiana University Indianapolis School of Health & Human Sciences is helping researchers in the United States and worldwide answer important questions about musculoskeletal disease and other health conditions.
Launched in 2017, the Function, Imaging and Testing (FIT) Core is part of IU School of Medicine’s nationally recognized Indiana Center for Musculoskeletal Health and funded by a National Institutes of Health program grant. So far, the FIT Core has recruited and tested more than 5,000 individuals.
To enroll in the FIT Core, volunteer participants perform simple physical function assessments, provide a blood sample (optional) and undergo body composition and bone health scans. The physical assessments include walking as far as possible in six minutes, balancing with the feet in different positions, walking speed tests, and assessment of hand grip strength. The FIT Core collects data from people between the ages of 5 and 100, regardless of their health condition or level of wellness.
“We’ve used the FIT Core population to create normative data that has resulted in the publication of five reference databases, including first-of-its-kind normative data on muscle density measured using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography, or HR-pQCT, that we published this year,” said FIT Core Director Stuart Warden, PhD, associate dean for research and Chancellor’s Professor, IU Physical Therapy program.
Researchers in a variety of medical disciplines use the FIT Core reference databases to see how their study subjects compare to the reference populations who meet certain criteria. “This expedites the research process and reduces costs because in using data from the FIT Core, researchers don’t need to recruit and test their own normal, healthy people to compare to their research participants with disease,” Warden explained.
The FIT Core participants’ data are linked to their electronic medical record, allowing researchers to request data sets of participants with certain diseases or conditions or those taking certain medications. In addition, the data are linked to the blood samples taken from the individuals, which are stored in the Indiana Biobank. All the data and samples provided to researchers are de-identified so the participants can’t be identified.
Warden said that up to 50 researchers in the U.S. and internationally are currently using the FIT Core in their work. This includes researchers at IU and other institutions who send their research participants through the FIT Core for testing. The FIT Core is currently part of studies in breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney and liver disease, osteoporosis, rare bone diseases, X-linked hypophosphatemia, Ehlers Danlos syndrome, GLP-1 inhibitors and obesity drugs, and more.
“Before the FIT Core, many researchers wouldn’t have considered including physical function and bone health outcomes in their research because such collective data didn’t exist or wasn’t widely available,” Warden explained. “With this resource, investigators are now more inclined to not only study physiological and metabolic outcomes but also look at how diseases and conditions affect a person’s physical capabilities and their ability to get around in everyday life.”
As a key component of musculoskeletal research underway at IU, the FIT Core demonstrates the value of integrating physical therapy in medical research. “The FIT Core elevates the reputation of physical therapy on our campus but also in the broader research community by contributing these types of outcomes for medical research,” Warden said.
The core is also contributing to the work of a statewide IU-led consortium that was recently named one of 15 finalists in the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines competition. The recognition positions Indiana as a global hub for musculoskeletal health, advancing treatments for conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, and chronic back pain.