Glycemic control protects against trabecular bone microarchitectural damage in a juvenile male rat model of streptozotocin-induced diabetes

ABSTRACTPurpose: To determine which features of the bone microarchitecture are affected by established diabetes mellitus (DM) and the effectiveness of glycemic control in the protection of bone tissue. Material and methods: Sixty juvenile Wistar male rats were divided into three groups of 20 animals: a control group (C) that included healthy animals, a diabetic group (D) that included animals with induced diabetes, and a controlled diabetic group (CD) that included animals with induced diabetes that were treated with insulin. The animals were euthanized at the periods of 6 and 8 weeks after the induction of diabetes (10 animals per group/period). Vertebral L4 specimens were submitted to μCT analysis to assess the following parameters of the bone microarchitecture: bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), trabecular number (Tb.N), and trabecular spacing (Tb.Sp). Results: The D group exhibited lower values of BV/TV (%) and numbers of trabeculae compared with the C group at 6 and 8 weeks a...