MedWire News: Subclinical inflammation is unlikely to increase the risk for osteoporosis, suggest study findings published in the journal Menopause.
The researchers say that the lack of association between levels of the inflammatory marker high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and bone mineral density (BMD) suggest that the “osteoimmunity system is more important than subclinical inflammation in bone mass of healthy postmenopausal women.”
Following on from research indicating that hsCRP levels predict risk for osteoporotic fracture, the team of Iranian researchers examined the relationship between hsCRP, the markers of bone turnover, osteoprotegerin (OPG), and receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL), and BMD of the lumbar spine and femoral neck.
Iraj Nabipour (Persian Gulf Tropical Medicine Research Center, Bushehr) and co-workers measured these parameters in 382 postmenopausal women (mean age 58.7 years).
Analysis showed that OPG levels and the ratio of OPG to RANKL were significantly associated with age.
HsCRP was, on average, 1.89 mg/l and hsCRP levels were positively correlated with the women’s body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio.
Multivariate analysis showed that RANKL concentration was negatively and significantly associated with BMD at both the lumbar spine and femoral neck, while the ratio of RANKL to OPG was positively and significantly associated with BMD at both sites. OPG was significantly associated with lumbar BMD.
Lumbar BMD was predicted by age, BMI, RANKL, and OPG, while femoral neck BMD was associated with age, BMI, and RANKL.
However, there was no significant relationship between the log of hsCRP and BMD at either site, or between the log hsCRP and BMD, RANKL, OPG, or RANKL to OPG ratio, after adjusting for age and BMI.
“These findings suggest that the components of the RANKL/OPG osteoimmunological system may provide clinical and biological clues for treatment and prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis in the future,” Nabipour et al write.
“In this population-based study, serum hsCRP concentrations were not associated with BMD at either site, circulating levels of RANKL/OPG system, and markers of bone turnover. Therefore, subclinical systemic inflammation may not be involved in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis.”
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