Ethanol consumption in non-human primates alters plasma markers of bone turnover but not tibia architecture
This study suggest that alcohol consumption may lower bone turnover rates without causing immediate changes in bone structure. This could potentially impact bone quality over time, even if bone mass remains stable.
College of Health researcher(s)
Highlights
- Alcohol consumption led to decreased levels of two important bone turnover markers in blood: osteocalcin and CTX. This suggests that alcohol reduces the rate at which bone tissue is renewed.
- Surprisingly, the study did not find significant changes in bone mass, density, or structure in the tibia (shin bone) of alcohol-consuming monkeys compared to controls.
- The effects on bone turnover markers were consistent across both monkey species and sexes.
- The duration of alcohol exposure did not significantly impact the bone features measured.
Abstract
Ethanol consumption is associated with positive, negative, and neutral effects on the skeletal system. Our previous work using a nonhuman primate model of voluntary ethanol consumption showed that chronic ethanol use has an impact on skeletal attributes, most notably on biochemical markers of bone turnover. However, these studies were limited by small sample sizes and resulting lack of statistical power. Here, we applied a machine learning framework to integrate data from 155 monkeys (100 ethanol and 55 controls) to identify the bone features associated with chronic ethanol use. Specifically, we analyzed the influence of ethanol consumption on biomarkers of bone turnover and cancellous and cortical bone architecture in tibia. We hypothesized that chronic ethanol use for 6 months to 2.5 years would result in measurable changes to cancellous features and the biochemical markers compared to control animals. We observed a decrease in bone turnover in monkeys exposed to ethanol; however, we did not find that ethanol consumption resulted in measurable changes in bone architecture.