Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Spring 5-14-2015

Faculty Advisor(s)

Kenneth Sumida

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the existence of sex differences following a 40% caloric restrictive diet and its impact on tibial bone mineral density (BMD) and bone strength between male and female rats. Thirty-two, six-week old Sprague Dawley rats (16 males and 16 females) were randomly divided into an ad libitum fed control group (MC, n=8 and FC, n=8) and a pair fed diet group placed on the 40% caloric restriction (MD, n=8 and FD, n=8) for a 6 week period. The caloric restrictive diet was equivalent to the normal fed diet in vitamin and mineral content where the only difference was 40% less calories. After 6 weeks, there were no significant interaction effects, therefore main effects (i.e., sex and diet) were examined. While the tibial BMD was equivalent between males (0.206 ± 0.003 g/cm2) and females (0.207 ± 0.004 g/cm2), bone strength (amount of force required to break the tibia expressed in Newtons, N) was significantly greater for males (112.0 ± 2.4 N) compared to females (74.8 ± 3.1 N). The BMD was significantly lower for caloric restrictive fed groups (0.200 ± 0.003 g/cm2) compared to normal fed animals (0.213 ± 0.003 g/cm2). In like manner, bone strength significantly lower for diet fed animals (86.5 ± 5.6 N) compared to control fed animals (100.3 ± 5.1N). The results indicate that caloric restriction lowers BMD and bone strength irrespective of sex. However, bone strength was greater for males compared to females.

Comments

Presented at the Spring 2015 Student Research Day at Chapman University.

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