Is bone loss the reversal of bone accrual? evidence from a cross-sectional study in daughter-mother-grandmother trios

Abstract

Bone adapts to mechanical loads applied on it. During aging, loads decrease to a greater extent at those skeletal sites where loads increase most in earlier life. Thus, the loss of bone may occur preferentially at sites where most bone has been deposited previously; ie, bone loss could be the directional reversal of accrual. To test this hypothesis, we compared the bone mass distribution at weight-bearing (tibia) and non-weight-bearing (radius) bones among 18-year-old girls, their premenopausal mothers, and their postmenopausal maternal grandmothers. Bone and muscle properties were measured by pQCT, and polar distribution of bone mass was obtained in 55 girl-mother-maternal grandmother trios. Site-matched differences in bone mass were compared among three generations. The differences between girls and mothers and between mothers and grandmothers were used to represent the patterns of bone mass accrual from early adulthood to middle age and bone loss from middle to old age, respectively. Compared to the mothers, 18-year old girls had less bone mass in the anterior and medial-posterior regions of the tibial shaft, while the grandmothers had less bone in the anterior and posterior regions. In contrast, the bone mass differences in the radial shaft between girls and mothers and mothers and grandmothers were relatively uniform. We conclude that both bone accrual and loss are direction-specific in weight-bearing bones but relatively uniform in non-weight-bearing bones. Bone loss in old age is largely, but not completely, a reversal of the preferential deposition of bone in the most highly loaded regions during early life. ß

Insulin resistance is associated with altered amino acid metabolism and adipose tissue dysfunction in normoglycemic women

“…This article is part of a large family study with 282 participating families and has been described elsewhere 45 . A subgroup of families (n = 74), comprising 222 individuals (daughter, mother and father) with no type I/II diabetes or family history (first degree relative) of diabetes, cardiac diseases, autoimmune diseases or major liver (cancer, hepatitis) diseases were contacted by letter for an additional study aimed at identifying biomarkers associated with insulin resistance and liver fat accumulation.…”

Adipose Tissue Dysfunction and Altered Systemic Amino Acid Metabolism Are Associated with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

“…This article is a part of the Calex family study (n = 282 families), which has been described elsewhere [ 23 , 24 ]. For the purpose of this report, a subgroup of families (n = 74), comprising 222 individuals (daughter, mother and father) with no history of liver, pancreas or heart disease, or of heavy drinking, were contacted by letters for an additional study aimed at identifying the early metabolic alterations associated with liver fat accumulation.…”

pQCT bone geometry and strength: population epidemiology and concordance in Australian children aged 11–12 years and their parents

“…Details of the initial LSAC study design and recruitment are outlined elsewhere 33 34. Briefly, in 2004 LSAC recruited the nationally representative B cohort of 5107 infants (57.2% eligible) using a two-stage random sampling design with postcode as the primary sampling unit.…”