NEW research could point to men being more at risk of suffering loss of bone mass because of chronic stress and depression.
The research, using mice, has shown how stress hormones lead to a loss of bone mass. And the problem only affected male mice.
The University of Sydney's Holger Henneicke said the effect of chronic stress and depression on bone health was well known, but how one affected the other was not entirely understood.
"We know stress and depression are linked to poor bone health but not how one results in the other, so we set out to determine the role played by stress hormones, known as glucocorticoids, in the cells which synthesise bone," he said.
"Eight-week-old male and female mice were exposed to chronic but mild stress."
The hormone signals were selectively disrupted in bone-forming cells in one group, while the other was left wild and a control group was not exposed to stress.
After four weeks of stress exposure, the scientists analysed a portion of the spine as well as the tibia and blood in each mouse.
The results showed that the wild type mice with intact stress hormone signalling experienced a loss of bone mass in the vertebrae and a reduction in the area of the tibial cortex, as well as an increase in the activity of osteoclast cells, which break down bone tissue for maintenance and repair.
The stressed mice whose hormone signals had been disrupted did not experience these negative effects.
"Interestingly, this only applied to males," Dr Henneicke said.
"In stressed females, neither the vertebral nor tibial structures were affected (and) chronic stress did not seem to influence bone health."
The researchers will now work to determine why the female mice were not affected by bone changes even when under stress.
