ANAHEIM, Calif.—Getting the right amount of calcium early in life is crucial to future bone health, as researchers presented findings at Experimental Biology 2010 meeting that showed bone health may be programmed as early as infancy. Under the umbrella of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition, researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine presented evidence that very early calcium nutrition may have more impact than previously thought.
Led by Chad Stahl, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Animal Science at NCSU, who studies the nutritional regulation of growth and development, the team has studied calcium fortification, early calcium intake and long-term bone health, using neonatal piglets as stand-ins for human infants. In their latest study, the researchers administered a calcium-rich diet in 12 piglets and a calcium-deficient diet in a control group of 12 other piglets, all during the first 18 days of the piglets’ lives. They took blood samples and weighed the piglets throughout the study, then collected bone marrow, liver, kidney and small intestine samples, while also testing hind legs for bone density and strength.
While there were no differences between the groups in blood markers of calcium status and growth, supporting the notion calcium absorption in infants is not as dependent on vitamin D as it is in adults, researchers did note a significant difference in bone density and strength, with the calcium-deficient piglets testing lower in both categories. Also, when studying the samples from bone marrow tissue, which contains all the material (known as mesenchymal stem cells) that will eventually become bone-forming cells, researchers found evidence the cells from the calcium-deficient piglets’ appeared to have already been programmed to become fat cells instead of bone-forming osteoblast cells.
“While the importance of calcium nutrition throughout childhood and adolescence is well recognized, our work suggests that calcium nutrition of the neonate may be of greater importance to life-long bone health due to its programming effects on mesenchymal stem cells,” Stahl said. “ It also points to a potential paradigm shift in which health professionals might want to begin thinking about osteoporosis not so much as a disease of the elderly, but instead as a pediatric disease with later onset.”
