Nitric oxide is associated with fracture risk in Japanese women

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 2; p. e0280854
• Main Authors: Shiraki, Masataka, Kuroda, Tatsuhiko, Nakano, Masaki, Nakamura, Yukio, Saito, Mitsuru, Urano, Tomohiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 07.02.2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Bone Density; Bone mass; Bone mineral density; Bones; Cohort analysis; Confidence intervals; Density; East Asian People; Estrogens; Female; Fractures; Health aspects; Humans; Laboratories; Long bone; Medical records; Medicine and Health Sciences; Menopause; Metabolism; Multiple regression analysis; Nitrates; Nitric Oxide; Nitrogen oxides; Oophorectomy; Osteoporosis; Osteoporosis - complications; Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal - complications; Osteoporotic Fractures - epidemiology; Physical Sciences; Post-menopause; Regression analysis; Risk Factors; Spinal Fractures - epidemiology; Statistical analysis; Statistical models; Trauma; Vertebrae; Women; Womens health; Japan; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280854

Although nitric oxide (NO) is a known factor that regulates the bone physiology, few and discordant results have been obtained in human studies evaluating the effect of nitrates on bone health. We investigated for the relationship between serum NOx level and incident osteoporotic fracture rate prospectively in a cohort consisting of Japanese women. A total of 871 subjects (67.5 ± 10.8 y/o) were analyzed. During the observation period (8.8 ± 7.2 yrs), incident osteoporotic fractures occurred in 267 participants (209 vertebral fractures, 57 long-bone fractures, and 1 both types). Hazard ratio, by the Cox proportional hazards model, of serum NOx for incident fracture was 0.64 (95% confidence interval 0.53-0.78, p < 0.001) after adjustment for baseline age (1.13, 1.06-1.21, p < 0.001), lumbar bone mineral density (L-BMD; 0.85, 0.78-0.92, p < 0.001), presence of prevalent fracture (3.27, 2.49-4.32, p < 0.001), and treatment of osteoporosis (0.70, 0.53-0.92, p = 0.010). The relationships between serum level of NOx and bone-related parameters were examined by multiple regression analysis; body mass index (p < 0.001) and L-BMD (p = 0.011) were significantly associated with serum NOx level. These results suggest that the low circulating NOx is one of the independent predictors for osteoporotic fracture occurrence in postmenopausal women.