Marija Šarić

Nutrition and lifestyle in relation to bone health and body weight in Croatian postmenopausal women.

The objective was to investigate the association of nutrients and lifestyle modifiers with bone mineral density (BMD) and weight and/or body mass index (BMI) in 120 healthy Croatian postmenopausal women. The hip and spine BMD was assessed by Lunar Prodigy (GE Medical Systems). Nutrient assessment from 3-day records was analyzed using the US Department of Agriculture Food Composition Tables and the Croatian National Institute of Public Health database. Subjects were asked to record the consumption of alcohol, coffee, tea and mineral waters, the amount of salt added to foods and smoking habits, as well as involvement in recreational activities, walking and heavy housework. Spot urine samples were analyzed for calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and zinc and were normalized by creatinine. Alcohol showed statistically significant positive association with femur and spine BMD and its consumption was higher in subjects without osteoporosis. Urinary sodium/creatinine was significantly positively associated with femoral neck and trochanter BMD, while urinary calcium/creatinine was significantly negatively associated with trochanter, total femur and spine BMD. Consumption of mineral waters was inversely associated with weight/BMI and so were dietary fiber and magnesium. In conclusion, moderate alcohol consumption and urinary sodium were positively associated while urinary calcium was negatively associated with either hip and/or spine BMD. Mineral waters, higher fiber and magnesium intake were beneficial for weight/BMI in this population of apparently healthy Croatian women.

505 Combined early treatment with DMSA and DTPA to mobilize cadmium in rats

The influence of chelating agents: meso-2, 3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) ; calcium trisodium diethylenetriaminepentaacetate (DTPA) and their combination on tissue retention and distribution of cadmium (Cd) was compared in female albino rats. Special attention was given to time of chelators application after cadmium administration. After oral cadmium intubation chelators were applied either orally (DMSA) or intraperitoneally (DTPA) in various short time intervals after cadmium. The dose of cadmium chloride was 0, 25 mmol/kg body weight and chelators dose was 1 mmol/kg, each. Three experiments were carried out with four treatment groups in each of them: 1) Cd (control) ; 2) Cd + DMSA ; 3) Cd + DTPA ; 4) Cd + DMSA + DTPA. Time intervals for chelator application after cadmium administration were: immediately in the first, half an hour in the second and one hour in the third experiment. Cadmium, iron, copper and zinc were measured in 24-hour urine collected after chelators application and in organs (liver, kidney and brain) at the end of each experiment. Results showed that the efficiency of cadmium removal from the body is lower when the time of chelator application is longer after cadmium administration. The two chelators differ in efficiency in mobilizing cadmium, with DMSA being more efficient than DTPA. The combined therapies of two chelators give slightly better results of cadmium chelation. It seems that DMSA that is given orally after oral cadmium removes this element very efficiently from the gastrointestinal tract. However, DTPA which is given parenterally removes absorbed cadmium very modestly. Whenever DTPA was given to animals zinc concentration is significantly higher in kidneys and much higher in urine than in other groups. Iron and copper do not change dramatically after chelation treatment.