Osteoporosis with different causation exhibits different changes in bone tissue mineral and organic matrix

Osteoporosis (OP) which is a common skeletal disease with different causation is prevalent in aging population. Postmenopause women generally suffer from OP with bone loss due to estrogen deficiency. Diabetes are also associated with OP by complex metabolic mechanisms. Bone qualities of OP caused by aging were compared with the ovariectomy (OVX) model and the Type 2 diabetic model using Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats in our study. Combining with micro-computed tomography ( μ -CT) and solid-state NMR (SSNMR) methods, this research studied bone changes in SD rats from tissue level to the molecular level. The studies revealed bone loss was most significant for cancellous bones, but not for cortical bones in OP rats. However, at the molecular level, the content of HAP in cortical bone increased with aging, contributing to the brittleness of the bone. Triglyceride, as a senescence maker of osteocyte in cortical bone, was also identified to be closely associated with OP in aging and OVX rats, but not in diabetic rats. This research suggests differing bone qualities in molecular level of OP with various causes more objectively reflect the bone tissue reconstruction rather than bone loss in μ -CT analysis.