QTLs for bone mineral density of femurs and tibias in recombinant inbred strains derived from C57BL/6J and DBA/2J inbred strains

Background Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for bone mineral density (BMD) are defined as regions of the genome that contain sequence variations that cause differences in either bone deposition or rates of resorption. In this study, we investigate QTLs for BMD of whole bones using femurs and tibiae from the BXD family of recombinant inbred (RI) strains derived by crossing C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) inbred strains.