Effect of Low Dietary Vitamin D Fed Prior to and During Pregnancy and Lactation on Maternal Bone Mineral Density, Structure, and Strength in C57BL/6 Mice

Christopher R Villa; Sandra M Sacco; Jianmin Chen; Amel Taibi; Elena M Comelli; Wendy E Ward

doi:10.1093/cdn/nzab114

Effect of Low Dietary Vitamin D Fed Prior to and During Pregnancy and Lactation on Maternal Bone Mineral Density, Structure, and Strength in C57BL/6 Mice

Curr Dev Nutr. 2021 Sep 8;5(10):nzab114. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzab114. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Authors

Christopher R Villa¹, Sandra M Sacco², Jianmin Chen¹, Amel Taibi¹, Elena M Comelli¹, Wendy E Ward¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Several studies have shown that diets containing lower vitamin D than in the AIN-93G diet do not compromise bone structure, bone mineral density (BMD), and/or bone strength in male and female mice. This study determined if a diet containing low vitamin D from prepregnancy through to the end of lactation maintained these bone outcomes to a similar extent as a high vitamin D diet. Mice were fed an AIN-93G diet with 25 (LD diet) or 5000 (HD diet) IU vitamin D/kg diet from premating through to lactation (n = 15/group). Of the major structure outcomes, only cortical area fraction of the distal femur was lower (P <0.05) with the LD diet. Lumbar vertebra BMD was lower (P <0.05) with LD whereas distal femur BMD and bone strength at 3 sites did not differ. Dams fed an LD diet premating through to the end of lactation had largely similar bone outcomes to dams fed a HD diet.

Keywords: AIN-93 diets; bone microarchitecture; calcium; fracture; micro-computed tomography; vitamin D.