Cortical and Trabecular Bone Mineral Loss From the Spine and Hip in Long-Duration Spaceflight
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We measured cortical and trabecular bone loss using QCT of the spine and hip in 14 crewmembers making 4- to 6-month flights on the International Space Station. There was no compartment-specific loss of bone in the spine. Cortical bone mineral loss in the hip occurred primarily by endocortical thinning. Introduction: In an earlier study, areal BMD (aBMD) measurements by DXA showed that cosmonauts making flights of 4- to 12-month duration on the Soviet/Russian MIR spacecraft lost bone at an average rate of 1%/month from the spine and 1.5%/month from the hip. However, because DXA measurements represent the sum of the cortical and trabecular compartments, there is no direct information on how these bone envelopes are affected by spaceflight. Materials and Methods: To address this, we performed a study of crewmembers (13 males and 1 female; age range, 40-55 years) on long-duration missions (4-6 months) on the International Space Station (ISS). We used DXA to obtain aBMD of the hip and spine and volumetric QCT (vQCT) to assess integral, cortical, and trabecular volumetric BMD (vBMD) in the hip and spine. In the heel, DXA was used to measure aBMD, and quantitative ultrasound (QUS) was used to measure speed of sound (SOS) and broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA). Results and Conclusions: aBMD was lost at rates of 0.9%/month at the spine (p < 0.001) and 1.4-1.5%/month at the hip (p < 0.001). Spinal integral vBMD was lost at a rate of 0.9%/month (p < 0.001), and trabecular vBMD was lost at 0.7%/month (p < 0.05). In contrast to earlier reports, these changes were generalized across the vertebrae and not focused in the posterior elements. In the hip, integral, cortical, and trabecular vBMD was lost at rates of 1.2-1.5%/month (p < 0.0001), 0.4-0.5%/month (p < 0.01), and 2.2-2.7%/month (p < 0.001), respectively. The cortical bone loss in the hip occurred primarily by cortical thinning. Calcaneal aBMD measurements by DXA showed smaller mean losses (0.4%/month) than hip or spine measurements, with SOS and BUA showing no change. In summary, our results show that ISS crewmembers, on average, experience substantial loss of both trabecular and cortical bone in the hip and somewhat smaller losses in the spine. These results do not support the use of calcaneal aBMD or QUS measurements as surrogate measures to estimate changes in the central skeleton.
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Long-duration spaceflights induce bone mineral density (BMD) loss in weight-bearing bones, with considerable individual variability.
“It is well known that long-duration spaceflights induce BMD loss in weight-bearing bones although there is considerable individual variability [6–12].”
From A human mission to Mars: Predicting the bone mineral density loss of astronauts (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
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- Authors
- Lang, T., LeBlanc, A., Evans, H., Lu, Y., Genant, H., & Yu, A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Universities Space Research Association (US)
- Wyle (United States) (US)
- Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
- Corresponding author
- Lang, Thomas
- Venue
- Journal of Bone and Mineral Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2004-06-01
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1006-1012
- ISSN
- 0884-0431 (ISSN-L)
- 1523-4681
- OpenAlex
- W1992567157
- Cited by
- 828
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 39 · 2015: 51 · 2014: 47 · 2013: 54 · 2012: 52
- FWCI
- 16.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Baoji University of Arts And Sciences
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Spaceflight effects on biology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Bone health and osteoporosis research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Effects of Vibration on Health
- Keywords
- bone mineral loss, spaceflight, microgravity, cortical bone, trabecular bone, bone loss rate, International Space Station, spine, hip, volumetric bone mineral density, quantitative computed tomography, quantitative ultrasound, cosmonauts, osteoporosis, exercise countermeasures
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Space Flight, Absorptiometry, Photon, Bone Density
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