A preliminary study on the influence of low-iron environment on serum osteocalcin and bone micro-structure in ovariectomized mice

Objective To investigate the changes of serum osteocalcin and bone micro-structure in ovariectomized mice exposed to low-iron environment.Methods Twenty-four 12-week-old female C57BL/6 mice were divided equally into sham operation (SHAM) group,model(OVX) group,and low iron(OVX+DFO) group.In low-iron group,deferoxamine(DFO) was injected 3 times per week for 5 weeks after operation ; the other groups were injected with the same dose of 0.9％ normal saline for 5 weeks.The serum,left femur,uterus were harvested after five weeks of treatment.The serum osteocalcin and ferritin levels were measured by ELISA kit,the weight of the uterus was recorded by analytical balance.A high resolution micro-CT was used to scan the left femur for cortical bone and cancellous bone analysis.Results (1) The serum osteocalcin and serum ferritin levels in low-iron group were significantly lower than those in the other 2 groups (P＜0.01) ; (2) Compared with the sham group and ovx group,there were significant decrease of the BMD、BV/TV and Tb.N,but increase of Tb.Th and Tb.Sp in low-iron group (P＜0.01).Conclusion A certain dose of DFO (30 mg/kg) can decrease the serum ferritin levels as well as the bone formation index in ovariectomized mice. Key words: Low-iron; Osteoporosis; Osteocalcin; Ferritin; Micro-CT