Burrows M, Liu D, Moore S, McKay H
Bone Microstructure at the Distal Tibia Provides a Strength Advantage to Males in Late Puberty: A HR-pQCT Study. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
J Bone Miner Res 2009 Oct 29.
Abstract Bone is a complex structure with many levels of organization. Advanced imaging tools such as high resolution (HR) pQCT provide the opportunity to investigate how components of bone microstructure differ between the sexes and across developmental periods. The aim of this study was to quantify the age and sex-related differences in bone microstructure and bone strength in adolescent males and females. We used HR-pQCT (XtremeCT, Scanco Medical) to assess total bone area (ToA), total bone density (ToD), trabecular bone density (TrD), cortical bone density (CoD), cortical thickness (Cort.Th), trabecular bone volume (BV/TV), trabecular number (Tb.N), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), trabecular separation (Tb.Sp), trabecular spacing standard deviation (Tb.Sp SD) and bone strength index (BSI, mg(2)/mm(4)), at the distal tibia in 133 females and 146 males (15-20 years). We used a General Linear Model to determine differences by age- and sex- group and age x sex interactions (P <0.05). Across age categories, ToD, CoD, Cort.Th and BSI were significantly lower at 15 and 16 years compared to 17-18 and 19-20 years in males and females. There were no differences in ToA, TrD, BV/TV across age for either sex. Between sex, males had significantly greater ToA, TrD, Cort.Th, BV/TV, Tb.N and BSI compared with females; CoD and Tb.Sp SD were significantly greater for females in every age category. Males' larger and denser bones confer a bone strength advantage from a young age compared with females. These structural differences could represent bones that are less able to withstand loads in compression in females.
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