According to a recent mouse study presented at an American Heart Association convention, high blood pressure may accelerate the ageing of bones.
According to a recent study presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2022 conference, young mice with high blood pressure exhibited bone loss and osteoporosis-related bone damage similar to older mice.
High blood pressure and osteoporosis are common disorders, and individuals may have both simultaneously. Researchers in this study investigated inflammation linked to high blood pressure in mice and discovered it could be related to osteoporosis.
“Bone marrow is where both new bone and new immune cells are produced. We suspect that more pro-inflammatory immune cells in the bone marrow may be leading to damage of the bone and making it weaker,” said lead study author Elizabeth Maria Hennen, a Ph.D.-candidate in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. “By understanding how hypertension contributes to osteoporosis, we may be able to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and better protect people later in life from having fragility fractures and a lower quality of life.”
In order to study the potential link between hypertension and bone ageing, researchers in the study compared young mice with artificially induced hypertension to older mice without hypertension. According to Hennen, the mice’s human age equivalents ranged from 47 to 56 years for the older mice and between 20 and 30 years for the younger mice. Twelve young (4 months old) mice were administered angiotensin II, a hormone that causes elevated blood pressure. For six weeks, the young mice were given 490 nanograms/kilogram of angiotensin II. A set of 11 older mice (16 months old) were also given 490 nanograms/kilogram of angiotensin II for six weeks. A buffer solution without angiotensin II was administered to two control groups of 13 young and 9 elderly mice, and these animals did not develop elevated blood pressure.
After six weeks, scientists used micro-computed tomography, an advanced imaging technique, to analyze the bones of mice from all four groups. Bone strength and density were used to determine bone health. Mathematical algorithms were utilized to assess the potential effects of hypertension and ageing on the microstructure and strength of bone in mice.