Association between Plasma Pentraxin 3 Levels and Bone Mineral Density in Elderly Koreans: the Dong-gu Study.

BACKGROUND

We investigated the association between pentraxin 3 (PTX3), a novel inflammatory marker, and bone mineral density (BMD) in the general Korean population.

METHODS

We selected a sub-cohort of 1,440 subjects (757 men and 683 women) from participants in the community-based Dong-gu Study. The mean age was 66.0 ± 8.1 years for men and 63.7 ± 7.9 years for women. The plasma PTX3 levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and BMD was measured in the femoral neck and lumbar spine using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between the plasma PTX3 levels and BMD.

RESULTS

PTX3 was inversely associated with the BMD of the lumbar spine (P = 0.010) and femoral neck (P < 0.001) in men but not in women. For men, the association with the BMD of the femoral neck remained after adjustment for multiple comparison (P = 0.020).

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that PTX3 levels might be inversely associated with BMD in elderly men.