Bone Abstracts

Introduction: FGF-21 is a protein that is produced by the liver and adipocytes. In patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), it could be involved in a complex adaptive response to starvation. In addition, this newly discovered protein could play pathogenic role in trabecular skeletal homeostasis. The aim of our work was to evaluate the concentrations of FGF-21 and bone metabolism in patients with AN.

Methods: Thirty seven female patients (aged 14.76±3.99 years) with restrictive type of AN and 19 sex-matched healthy controls (aged 13.84±8.17 years) were enrolled in this study. Laboratory parameters of bone metabolism including Ca, P, ALP, vitamin D, PTH, osteocalcin, CTx and PINP-l were examined. Bone mineral density (BMD) was assessed by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA).

Results: Patients with AN had significantly lower body weight in comparison to controls (40.4±1.5 vs 49.3±3.2 kg, P ≤ 0.05). We observed no significant differences in plasma FGF- 21 between patients with AN and controls (113.50±19.68 vs 128.62±21.1 pg/ml, P ≥ 0.05). There was no significant correlation between concentration of FGF-21 and parameters of bone metabolism. In patients with AN, significant correlations were found between body weight and BMD in the proximal femoral area (r=0.54), as well as whole-body BMD (r=0.59) and trabecular bone score (TBS) (r=0.5), respectively. We found trend of correlation between TBS a FGF-21 (r=−0.43).

Conclusion: The trend of correlation between circulating FGF-21 and damaged trabecular microarchitecture in patients with AN could bring new insight into pathogenesis of ‘osteopathic condition’. It seems that association between bone changes and mental anorexia creates a unique skeletal entity.

Disclosure: The authors declared no competing interests.