The Relationship Between the Level of Serum Lipids and Bone Metabolism Among Pre and Postmenopausal Women

Shin, Jin Hee; Hwang, Yu Na; Kim, Wan Wook; Kim, Hyun Sook; Song, Sang Wook

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Previous in vitro and animal studies showed that high serum cholesterol reduced bone mass densitometry (BMD) by affecting the cell differentiation of osteoblasts, and antihyperlipidemic drugs (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) were shown to help preserve bone mass and prevent osteoporosis induced fracture. However there were only few studies which investigated the correlation between human serum lipid levels with biochemical bone markers reflecting bone metabolism. Therefore, this study was done to investigate the correlation between the two. METHOD: The subjects included 133 female adults who visited a health promotion center from November 2005 to May 2006. Urine deoxypyridinoline osteocalcin, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were used as bone markers and BMD was measured.
RESULTS
There was a positive correlation between urine deoxypyridinoline and triglyceride (r = 0.20, P = 0.02), and a negative correlation with HLD-cholesterol (r = -0.24, P < 0.01). No correlation was found between osteocalcin and serum lipids but a positive correlation was noted between ALP and HLD-cholesterol (r = 0.21, P = 0.01). In an effort to study the relationship between bone marker and serum lipids, multiple regression analysis was conducted after adjusting for age, menopause status, the period of menopause, BMI (Body mass index), muscle mass, fat mass, and exercise amounts. According to the analysis, deoxypyridinoline had a statistically significant correlation with total cholesterol (P < 0.01), triglyceride (P < 0.01), HDL-cholesterol (P = 0.013), and LDL-cholestrol (P < 0.01), but osteocalcin showed no correlation. ALP was found to have a significant correlation with triglyceride (P = 0.014) and LDL-cholesterol (P = 0.045).
CONCLUSION
Significant correlation was noted between serum lipid level and deoxypyridinoline as bone absorption index and ALP as bone formation index. Therefore, lipid metabolism can affect the bone metabolism, and dyslipidemia patients should be managed in order to prevent osteoporosis.