Materials and Methods: Three months old Sprague Dawley male rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: (I) control group; (II) alcohol (3g/kg) + normal saline; (III) alcohol (3g/kg) + olive oil; (IV) alcohol (3g/kg) + alpha-tocopherol (60mg/kg) and (V) alcohol (3g/kg) + palm vitamin E (60mg/kg). The treatment lasted for three months. Following sacrifice, the right tibia was subjected to bone biomechanical test while the lumbar (fourth and fifth lumbar) and left tibia bones were harvested for bone mineral measurement.

Results: Alcohol caused reduction in bone biomechanical parameters (maximum force, ultimate stress, yield stress and Young's modulus) and bone minerals (bone calcium and magnesium) compared to control group (P<0.05). Palm vitamin E was able to improve bone biomechanical parameters by increasing the maximum force, ultimate stress and Young's modulus (P<0.05) while alpha-tocopherol was not able to. Both alpha-tocopherol and palm vitamin E were able to significantly increase tibia calcium and magnesium content while only alpha-tocopherol caused significant increase in lumbar calcium content (P<0.05).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 32 female Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups. The baseline group was sacrificed at the start of the study, and another group was sham operated. The remaining rats were ovariectomized and either given olive oil as a vehicle or treated with tocotrienol at a dose of 60 mg/kg body weight. After four weeks of treatment, blood was withdrawn for the measurement of interleukin-1 (IL1) and interleukin-6 (IL6) (bone resorbing cytokines), serum osteocalcin (a bone formation marker) and pyridinoline (a bone resorption marker).

RESULTS: Tocotrienol supplementation in ovariectomized rats significantly reduced the levels of osteocalcin, IL1 and IL6. However, it did not alter the serum pyridinoline level.

PURPOSE: Osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Asians (OSTA) is a convenient screening algorithm used widely to identify patients at risk of osteoporosis. Currently, the number of studies validating OSTA in Malaysian population is limited. This study aimed to validate the performance of OSTA in identifying subjects with osteoporosis determined with DXA.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study recruited 786 Malaysians in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Their bone health status was assessed by DXA and OSTA. The association and agreement between OSTA and bone mineral density assessment by DXA were determined by Pearson's correlation and Cohen's kappa, respectively. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were used to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) for OSTA.

METHODS: Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats (200-250 g) were used. Twenty-four animals were adrenalectomized and received intramuscular injection of dexamethasone (120 μg/kg/day). They were simultaneously administered with either Piper sarmentosum water extract (125 mg/kg/day), GCA (120 mg/kg/day) or distilled water as vehicle by oral gavage for two months. Eight animals were sham-operated and given vehicle daily, i.e. intramuscular olive oil and oral distilled water.

RESULTS: Following two months treatment, dexamethasone-treated adrenalectomized rats had significantly lower 11β-HSD1 dehydrogenase activity and higher 11β-HSD1 expression in the femoral bones compared to the sham-operated and baseline group. The rats supplemented with Piper sarmentosum water extract had significantly higher 11β-HSD1 dehydrogenase activity and lower 11β-HSD1 expression in the bones.

METHOD: In total, 24 female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups. The first group was sham-operated, and the other two groups were ovariectomized. After two months, the right femora of the rats were fractured under anesthesia and internally repaired with K-wires. The sham-operated and ovariectomized control rat groups were administered olive oil (a vehicle), whereas 60 mg/kg of alpha-tocopherol was administered via oral gavage to the alpha-tocopherol group for six days per week over the course of 8 weeks. The rats were sacrificed, and the femora were dissected out. Computed tomography scans and X-rays were performed to assess fracture healing and callus staging, followed by the assessment of callus strengths through the biomechanical testing of the bones.

RESULTS: Significantly higher callus volume and callus staging were observed in the ovariectomized control group compared with the sham-operated and alpha-tocopherol groups. The ovariectomized control group also had significantly lower fracture healing scores than the sham-operated group. There were no differences between the alpha-tocopherol and sham-operated groups with respect to the above parameters. The healed femora of the ovariectomized control group demonstrated significantly lower load and strain parameters than the healed femora of the sham-operated group. Alpha-tocopherol supplementation was not able to restore these biomechanical properties.