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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Scanning Skeletal Remains for Bone Mineral Density in Forensic Contexts
Published on: January 29, 2018
Bone mass in young adults: relationship with gender, weight and genetic factors
C Valero1, M T Zarrabeitia, J L Hernández
1Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital U.M. Valdecilla, Santander, Spain.
Objectives:
To determine the relationship of the bone mass attained in young adults with anthropometric and genetic factors.
Design:
Cross-sectional study of normal individuals.
Methods:
We studied 341 healthy subjects between 22 and 45 years of age. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and correlated with body weight, height and nine polymorphisms in six genes involved in sex steroid metabolism (17-hydroxylase, aromatase and 5-reductase) and activity (oestrogen receptors (ER)-alpha and -beta, and androgen receptor).
Results:
The BMD was higher in men than in women (spine: 1.048 +/- 0.120 vs. 1.034 +/- 0.112; hip: 0.907 +/- 0.131 vs. 0.822 +/- 0.104 g cm(-2), P < 0.001). However, the difference was due, at least in part, to the larger body size in men and diminished markedly after height adjustment. There was a negative correlation between age and hip BMD. Body weight was the single most influential factor on spine and hip BMD in both sexes, explaining 8-9% of BMD variance. Amongst the genetic factors studied, a common CA repeat polymorphism in ER-beta showed a significant association with BMD in women (P = 0.03 at the spine, and 0.008 at the hip). The relationship between ER-beta genotype and BMD persisted after adjustment by body weight and age, explaining a further 2-3% of BMD variance. Allelic variants of other genes studied were not related with BMD.
Conclusions:
Body weight and allelic variants of ER-beta are associated with BMD in young adults.
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