Spine bone mineral density and vertebral body height are altered by alcohol consumption in growing male and female rats.

Alcohol, consumed for extended periods by growing male and female rats, impairs osteogenesis and reduces bone size and mass. The skeletal sites of experimental animals commonly chosen for an evaluation of bone mechanical characteristics and architectural properties, bone matrix gene expression, tissue concentrations of growth factors, and bone mineral density (BMD) have been the tibiae and femora. Far less attention has been focused on the spine and the effects of alcohol on vertebral BMD and vertebral body height. Fifteen male and 15 female Sprague-Dawley rats (aged 30 days) were divided into three groups: an alcohol-fed group, matched to a pair-fed non-alcohol isocaloric-fed control group with animals of the same sex, and an ad libitum-fed control group. Alcohol-fed animals received a Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet containing 36% of caloric intake as alcohol; isocaloric pair-fed rats received the same diet without alcohol. After 45 days of feeding, the lumbar spine was removed. The fourth lumbar vertebra from each spine was dissected, and the vertebral body height was measured. Lumbar vertebral body height was significantly reduced by alcohol consumption in both male and female rats compared with findings for either control group. Cancellous and cortical BMD of the vertebral body was determined by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT). Male and female rats (aged 75 days) in the ad libitum-fed group had similar vertebral body cortical and cancellous BMD, with cortical BMD being greater than cancellous BMD. Lumbar vertebral body cancellous and cortical BMD declined for both male and female rats in response to alcohol consumption for 45 days compared with findings for either control group. More BMD loss occurred from cancellous than from cortical bone in both sexes after chronic alcohol consumption. Chronic alcohol consumption by growing rats results in vertebral growth reduction and vertebral osteopenia.