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Girls accrue more bone relative to lean mass in puberty
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TORONTO — During puberty, girls accrue more bone relative to lean mass, resulting in bone mineral reserve in young adulthood for reproductive needs later in life, according to an analysis of 15 years of longitudinal data.
“Girls have less bone in absolute terms because female size is smaller and there is less mass, but relatively they have more bone compared to lean mass,” Saija Kontulainen, PhD, assistant professor at the College of Kinesiology at University of Saskatchewan, Canada, told Infectious Diseases in Children.
Previously published cross-sectional data have pointed to sex differences in the acquisition of bone mineral content in relation to muscle gain; however, longitudinal data to support these sex differences are absent, according to Kontulainen.
Researchers analyzed 15 years of longitudinal data from the Saskatchewan Pediatric Bone Mineral Accural Study, which included 66 women and 61 men. DXA was used to measure bone mineral content and lean body mass of the total body, trunk arms and legs during puberty (1991-1997) and later in young adulthood (2002-2006). Researchers also determined peak height velocity and calculated the age from peak height velocity to detect biological age at each measurement time.
According to the results, women had a greater bone mineral content to lean ratio in the total body, arms and legs compared with men. Sex did not influence trunk bone mineral content to lean ratio.
Women had, on average, 10% greater total body bone mineral content to lean ratio compared with men, after controlling for confounding factors such as maturation, fat mass and physical activity, Kontulainen said during the oral session.
“It could be that girls accrue more bone relative to lean mass because of a biological need, such as reproduction,” she said. “That is one theory.” – by Louise Gagnon
Disclosure: Dr. Kontulainen did not respond to requests for financial disclosures.
For more information:
- Kontulainen SA. Plenary poster session. FR0009. Presented at: American Society of Bone and Mineral Research 2010 Annual Meeting; Oct. 15-19, 2010; Toronto.