A high-phosphorus (P) diet has several effects on calcium (Ca) and P metabolism. It increases parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion (1, 2), which causes an increase in bone resorption and a decrease in bone mineral density (BMD) (3-5). Our previous study demonstrated that elevated PTH secretion from a high-P diet increases mRNA expression of the receptor activator of NF-kB ligand (RANKL), a mediator of osteoclastic bone resorption, resulting in increased osteoclastic bone resorption (4). Moreover, it is well known that a high dietary P concentration is an important etiologic factor in the development of nephrocalcinosis and diminished kidney function. A high-P diet is reportedly associated with increased kidney Ca and P concentrations and nephrocalcinosis development (6-8). and Van Camp et al. (9) reported that urinary albumin excretion, which is positively correlated with kidney Ca concentrations, is elevated in rats fed a high-P diet. Our previous studies also showed that renal tubular function is impaired in rats fed a high-P diet (10,11).Ca supplementation has beneficial effects on bone health, including enhanced bone mineral content (BMC) and BMD (12,13). Epidemiological studies have shown that a lower Ca/P intake ratio is associated with a decrease in BMD (14,15). Our previous study also showed that the dietary Ca/P ratio regulates bone mineralization and turnover in vitamin D receptor knockout mice (16). Therefore, dietary Ca supplementation might prevent bone loss induced by a high-P diet. In addition, we speculated that dietary Ca supplementation may have preventive effects on kidney damage, such as nephrocalcinosis, and impaired kidney function as well as bone loss due to a high-P diet. Therefore, we aimed to clarify the relationships between dietary Ca supplementation and bone loss as well as kidney damage with a high-P diet. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary Ca supplementation on bone metabolism, kidney mineral concentrations, and kidney function in rats fed a high-P diet.
Materials and MethodsExperimental design. This study was approved by the Tokyo University of Agriculture Animal Use Committee and the rats were maintained in accordance with the university guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. Four-week-old male Wistar strain rats were purchased from Clea Japan (Tokyo, Japan) and housed individually in stainless steel cages in a room maintained at 22˚C with a 12-h light-dark cycle. All rats were fed a control diet containing 0.3% P and 0.5% Ca for 7 d of acclimatization. After the acclimatization period, all rats were randomly divided into 4 dietary groups of 6 Summary We investigated the effects of dietary calcium (Ca) supplementation on bone metabolism, kidney mineral concentrations, and kidney function in rats fed a high-phosphorus (P) diet. Wistar strain rats were randomly divided into 4 dietary groups and fed their respective diets for 21 d: a diet containing 0.3% P and 0.5% Ca (C), a diet containing 1.5% P and 0.5% Ca (HP), a diet containing ...