Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Despite beneficial effect of FGF-21 on metabolic disease, there were concerns about adverse effect on bone metabolism, supported by animal studies. However, a recent human study showed the positive association between FGF-21 and bone mineral density (BMD) in health premenopausal women. This study was undertaken to examine the association between FGF-21 and BMD in healthy postmenopausal Korean women who are susceptible to osteoporosis.

Methods: We used data of 115 participants from healthy postmenopausal women cohort (>50 years old) to examine the correlations between FGF-21 levels and BMD. Participants had provided information regarding their clinical characteristics, and underwent blood testing and serum FGF-21 testing. BMD and T scores of lumbar spine, femur neck and total hip area were used in analyses.

Results: The subjects’ mean age was 60.2±7.2 years old and mean BMI was 24.4±3.5 kg/m². The prevalences of osteoporosis were 19.6%. There were two patients with a history of lumbar fractures and none had a history of hip fractures. Serum FGF-21 level showed inverted correlation with BMD and T scores at all three areas; however, there were no statistical significances. Multivariate analyses with adjustment for age and BMI also did not show significant associations of FGF-21 level and BMD and T scores. Additionally, FGF-21 level also showed no correlation with CTX and osteocalcin.

Conclusions: In our study, serum FGF-21 level showed no significant correlation with BMD and T scores.