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Resistive vibration exercise retards bone loss in weight-bearing skeletons during 60 days bed rest

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Abstract

Summary

Countermeasures are desirable to retard bone loss during long-term space flight. We evaluated the effect of an intervention protocol on bed rest-induced bone loss.

Introduction

We developed a resistive vibration exercise (RVE) platform to test if an intervention RVE protocol would be effective to protect bed rest-induced bone loss.

Methods

Fourteen male subjects were assigned randomly to either the RVE group (n = 7) that performed daily supervised resistive vibration exercise or to the no any exercise control (CON) group (n = 7). Both dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and peripheral quantitative computed tomography were used to monitor changes in bone mineral density.

Results

RVE significantly prevented bone loss at multiple skeletal sites, including calcaneus, distal tibia, hip, and lumbar spine (L2–L4). The ratio of urinary calcium and creatinine was found higher after starting bed rest in CON group while no significant changes were observed in RVE group. No significant temporal change was found for osteocalcin-N during and after bed rest in CON group. However, a significant increase was shown after bed rest in RVE group. In both groups, the urinary concentration of bone resorption markers, such as C-telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX-I) and deoxypyridinoline (DPD), were significantly elevated after bed rest. In the CON group, no significant temporal effect was found for hydroxyproline (HOP), CTX-I, and DPD during bed rest and the serum concentration of HOP and TGF-β significantly increased about 52.04% and 24.03%, respectively only after bed rest. However, all these markers tended to decrease in the RVE group.

Conclusions

Our results might imply that the intervention of RVE retarded bone loss induced by simulated microgravity in humans that was mainly attributed to its anabolic effects.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all the volunteers who gave their selfless contribution and willingness to ensure the success of this project. The efforts of the staff participated in this project from the Astronaut Center of China in the biological sample collection and data management are appreciated. We are grateful to Professor Ling Qin and Professor Wing-Hoi Cheung (Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) for designing this project and for the advice and revision of the manuscript. Special thanks go to Dr. Kam-Fai Tam, Yanqiang Bai, and Yibing Deng for their help with the study. This study was funded by the National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program) (No.2011CB707704;No.2011CB711003), National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.30970778), and Scheme D of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Ref.: 1904009).

Conflicts of interest

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State key Lab of Space Medicine Fundamentals and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 100094

    H. Wang, Y. Wan, S. Ling, Y. Bai, Y. Deng, Y. Liu, H. Zhang & Y. Li

  2. Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    K.-F. Tam, W.-H. Cheung, L. Qin, J. C.-Y. Cheng & K.-S. Leung

  3. Joint ACC-CUHK Space Medicine Center on Health Maintenance of Musculoskeletal System (Shenzhen Base of ACC-CUHK State Key Lab of Basic and Applied Space Medicine), Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    H. Wang, W.-H. Cheung, L. Qin, J. C.-Y. Cheng, K.-S. Leung & Y. Li

Authors
  1. H. Wang
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  2. Y. Wan
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  3. K.-F. Tam
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  4. S. Ling
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  7. Y. Liu
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  9. W.-H. Cheung
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  10. L. Qin
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  11. J. C.-Y. Cheng
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to K.-S. Leung or Y. Li.

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Wang, H., Wan, Y., Tam, KF. et al. Resistive vibration exercise retards bone loss in weight-bearing skeletons during 60 days bed rest. Osteoporos Int 23, 2169–2178 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-011-1839-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-011-1839-z

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