Study of a new biomarker of bone collagen as estimator of calcium adequacy in healthy young school children

RIO ME; DUPRAZ H; ZAGO L; ZENI SN

San Diego, California, USA

Congreso; Experimental Biology (FASEB); 2008

FASEB

  The search of an adequate method to assess calcium (Ca) nutritional status in children is a pending subject of nutritional biochemistry. In this work, preliminary results of an assay addressed to add a new biomarker to the available battery is presented. Bone growth is a process highly affected by body Ca status. For that, a degradation product of collagen type I, measurable by C-telopeptide (CTX) immunoassays in urine samples, was selected:  the á-CTX biomarker arises from newly synthesized bone collagen and could be associated with growth at childhood. For that purpose, basal void samples were obtained from 173 healthy scholars attending public schools of Vicente Lopez (Bs.As.).  Children, aged 6.2 to 9.2 years, presented normal BMI. Alfa-CTX (ELISA, Nordic Bioscience Diag); Ca (AAS) and creatinine (WienerLab®. Argentina)  were performed on those samples to calculate the respective á-CTX and Ca to Creatinine ratios. The equation for á-CTX vs Ca/C was: 1,0256x + 0,7706; R= 0,52; p<0,01. Results show a quite good  correlation between both variables. Standardization procedures are in progress. UBCyT 753. Part of the H Dupraz  PhD Thesis.