Hormonal determinants of bone turnover before and after attainment of peak bone mass.

Introduction: Bone turnover decreases from adolescence into adulthood, but does not reach a nadir until the fourth decade. Biochemical markers of bone turnover reflect different processes before and after peak bone mass, so hormonal influences on bone turnover may differ before and after peak bone mass.

Objectives: To describe the changes in bone turnover and hormones relevant to bone metabolism from adolescence into adulthood, and to identify which hormones correlate with bone turnover before and after peak bone mass.

Attainment of peak bone mass at the lumbar spine, femoral neck and radius in men and women: relative contributions of bone size and volumetric bone mineral density.

The age at which peak bone mineral content (peak BMC) is reached remains controversial and the mechanism underlying bone mass "consolidation" is still undefined. The aims of this study were to investigate; (1) the timing of peak BMC by studying bone size and volumetric BMD (vBMD) as separate entities and (2) to determine the relative contributions of bone size and vBMD to bone mass "consolidation". A total of 132 healthy Caucasian children (63 boys and 69 girls, ages 11-19 years) and 134 healthy Caucasian adults (66 men and 68 women, ages 20-50 years) were studied.