NELL1 and osteoporosis: In humans, genome-wide analyses of 2,073 participants in the original Framingham osteoporosis study39 showed that rs10766761, located in intron 12 of the NELL-1 gene, was nominally associated with low BMD of both the femoral neck (P = 7.9 × 10−4) and the lumbar spine (P = 3.3 × 10−4)40,41.