Abstract

Modification of the diet during childhood and adolescence may be an effective strategy for maximizing the peak bone mass. Many supplementation studies have suggested a positive effect of the increased vitamin D intake on the bone mineral status in the elderly. However to date all studies have been conducted on old men and postmenopausal women. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of vitamin D supplementation on the bone mineral density and bone mineral content in growing rats. Twenty Sprague-Dawley female rats were divided into two groups; Control, and vitamin D supplementation. The bone mineral density(BMD) and bone mineral content(BMC) were measured using PIXImus in the spine and femur. Vitamin D supplementation did not affect the level of weight gain, mean food intake and food efficiency ratio. In addition, vitamin D supplementation had no added effect on the spine and femur BMD, and BMC. There were no significant differences in the spine BMD/weight and BMC/weight between the groups, but the spine BMD/weight and BMC/weight was 11 % higher in the vitamin D supplementation group. The femur BMD/weight and femur BMC/weight were significantly higher in the vitamin D supplementation group 9 weeks after the experiment. These results provide evidence of the beneficial effects of vitamin D supplementation on the BMD during the growth period.

Keywords

• Vitamin D;
• bone mineral density(BMD);
• bone mineral content(BMC)