nck1 has been shown to be associated with bone mass. a deficiency in nck1, which is shown to reduce er stress in obese mice, also accelerates unloading-induced osteoporosis caused by mechanical stress. this seems to suggest that would be a crucial protein involved with bone metabolism and that retention of bone tissue by a protein as yet unknown. nck1 expression increased twofold when involved with neurectomy-based unloading osteoporosis. this then follows that in a deficient organism this upregulation would not be possible and thus the body would have increased bone loss due to the lack of expression of nck1 to deal with the stress, which is what happens in vivo. this acceleration of bone loss leads researchers to believe that the pathway for bone metabolism is highly regulated by several proteins that have yet to be discovered or incorporated into a schema.