The negative impact of single prolonged stress (SPS) on bone development in mice

Hongrun Yu, Heather Watt, Chandrasekhar Kesavan, Subburaman Mohan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) disrupts hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal (HPA) axis function. Given the established role of HPA axis hormones in regulating bone metabolism, we tested the hypothesis that traumatic stress has a negative impact on bone development. We employed a variant single prolonged stress (SPS) model in which several stressors were applied to three week old C57BL/6J mice. Compared to the controls, the stressed mice showed increased freezing behavior reminiscent of PTSD symptoms. At two weeks, bone mineral content (BMC), bone area (B area) and bone mineral density (BMD) in total body based on dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) analysis were reduced by 10.2%, 7.0% and 3.6%, respectively. Micro-CT analysis of the metaphyseal region of the excised tibia revealed that SPS caused a deterioration of trabecular architecture with trabecular number (Tb.N), BV/TV, connectivity density (Conn-Den) decreasing 12.0%, 18.9%, 23.3% and trabecular spacing (Tb.Sp), structure model index (SMI) increasing 13.9%, 21.8%, respectively. Mechanical loading increased the cross-sectional area in the mid-shaft region of the loaded right versus unloaded left tibia by 7.6% in the controls, and 10.0% in the stressed mice. Therefore, SPS applied to pre-pubertal young mice produced strong negative impact on both bone mass acquisition and trabecular architecture. Mechanical loading can be employed to increase bone size, a parameter related to bone strength, in normal as well as stressed conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)564-570
Number of pages7
JournalStress
Volume16
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2013

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Physiology
  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
  • Endocrine and Autonomic Systems
  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

Keywords

  • Bone mineral content
  • Electric shocks
  • Forced swimming
  • Freezing
  • PTSD
  • Restraining

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