Although vertebral effects were not a part of this study, previous work by Zernicke et al. [16] found smaller L6 ash content in rats fed a high-fat–sucrose diet over 2 years. Fig. 2 Bone mineral. see more a Young and e adult whole-body bone mineral density (aBMD) is unchanged in HFD; b young and f adult whole-body areal

bone mineral content (BMC) is lower for the yHFD vs. yLFD, which is likely due to reduced spinal aBMD. c Young and g adult areal bone mineral density of the femora are unchanged; d young and h adult areal bone mineral density of the spine are reduced for HFD despite increasing weight, leptin, and IGF-I. yLFD n = 15, yHFD n = 15, aLFD n = 13, aHFD n = 14 (*** p < 0.001) Bone geometry: cortical bone size effect reversed with age With respect to the measurements of bone size, femoral thickness in aHFD was smaller vs. aLFD (p < 0.01), likely due to reduced endocortical bone turnover as

measured by dynamic histomorphometry. yHFD showed an increase in femoral diameter compared to yLFD (p < 0.01), as summarized in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 Cortical bone size. a Young and d adult cortical thickness is reduced in adults only; b young and e adult femoral diameters are increased in yHFD vs. yLFD; c young and f adult femoral lengths are unchanged. g Histomorphometry results: Ma.Ar. marrow area (mm2), T.Ar. total cros-sectional area (mm2), Mean Ct.Wi. mean cortical width (μm), Ps.BFR and Ec.BFR periosteal and endocortical bone formation rate (μm3/μm2/γ). The general trend in the bone size data points to decreasing bone size in adults and increasing bone

size in young obese mice compared to LFD, as Selleck Maraviroc well as a shift from periosteal activity to endosteal activity with age. yLFD n = 15, yHFD n = 15, aLFD n = 13, aHFD n = 14 (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001) Bone histomorphometry measurements: periosteal and endosteal responses differ with diet Total cross-sectional area did not change significantly for either age group but mean cortical width was Clomifene 5% smaller in yHFD vs. yLFD (p < 0.05). The bone marrow cavity area was 17% larger in yHFD vs. yLFD (p < 0.05), which is in agreement with the cortical thickness finding and suggests larger levels of endocortical resorption in yHFD. The adult marrow area trended larger in HFD as well but this change was not significant. The endocortical bone formation rate (BFR) was unchanged in both age groups; however, periosteal BFR was higher in both age groups (p < 0.05). Aging may have differential effects on endocortical and periosteal response to HFD, and while the former decreases the latter may increase. These results are in agreement with prior aging studies even where obesity is not a factor; an effect that has been shown to occur independently of diet where increasing periosteal apposition is coupled with increasing endocortical remodeling with age [35].