The integumentary and skeletal systems work together as the body’s first line of defense. As we age, cellular processes slow down and our defenses start to falter. Your task is to explore the functional relationship between these two systems and examine why osteoporosis is a multifactorial disease.

Instructions

1. Imagine that you have been asked to write a scientific article to be published in a prominent journal on the topic of osteoporosis as a multifactorial disease. Prepare a written paper of at least 1000 words on the following bullet points:
   1. What is the functional relationship between the integumentary and skeletal systems?
   2. How does failure to maintain homeostasis in the integumentary system affect bone formation and remodeling processes? Be sure to discuss how the different types of bone cells respond to different factors (e.g., ions, hormones, cellular signaling molecules, etc.) and what the driving force behind maintaining homeostasis in the bone remodeling process.
   3. Describe the pathogenesis of osteoporosis and explain why it is considered a multifactorial disease.
   4. How do current therapies address these failures to maintain homeostasis and ameliorate the effects of osteoporosis?
2. Your paper should be formatted as a proper research paper with an introduction and conclusion. Do not simply follow the bullet points above, but really think about what you have learned and how that relates to other material we have covered, and knowledge you have from other courses you may have taken. The Research and Report assignments in this course are capstone assignments for each module. You should be integrating everything that you learned in the textbook, explorations, discussions, and lab activities into your papers.
3. All references must be cited using APA Style format. Please refer to the CCCOnline APA Citation Toolkit. 

Sources should be reliable websites or journals. Please review attached grading rubric