Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have found a second genetic defect that accounts for previously unexplained forms of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a disorder that weakens bones, sometimes results in frequent fractures and is sometimes fatal.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered that a previously unexplained fatal form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta - a disorder that weakens bones and which may cause frequent fractures - results from a genetic defect in a protein involved in the production of collagen.