The Brittle Bone Disease

I started reading Jodi Picoult's Handle With Care and I am past halfway already, and I can truly say that my heart goes to the mother named Charlotte in the story. That's why I decided to post something about OI. I didn't know there's something like this kind. We all know osteoporosis but this is something Greek to me.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI and sometimes known as Brittle Bone Disease, or "Lobstein syndrome") is a genetic bone disorder. People with OI are born with defective connective tissue, or without the ability to make it, usually because of a deficiency of Type-I collagen. This deficiency arises from an amino acid substitution of glycine to bulkier amino acids in the collagen triple helix structure. The larger amino acid side-chains create steric hindrance that creates a "bulge" in the collagen complex. As a result, the body may respond by hydrolyzing the improper collagen structure. If the body does not destroy the improper collagen, the relationship between the collagen fibrils and hydroxyapatite crystals to form bone is altered, causing brittleness.

Source: Wikipedia