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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Determining Bile Duct Density in the Mouse Liver
07:35

Determining Bile Duct Density in the Mouse Liver

Published on: April 30, 2019

Hyperbilirubinemia is not a major contributing factor to altered bone mineral density in patients with chronic liver

Darcey L H Smith1, Norah J Shire, Nelson B Watts

  • 1Division of Digestive Diseases, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0595, USA.

Journal of Clinical Densitometry : the Official Journal of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry
|May 30, 2006
PubMed

Reduced bone density is commonly encountered in patients with chronic liver disease. Prior studies have shown that unconjugated bilirubin inhibits osteoblast activity and function in vitro and in animal models of bone mineralization. To determine whether hyperbilirubinemia promotes the development of hepatic osteodystrophy, bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in a cohort of 86 consecutive patients with chronic liver disease referred for liver transplant evaluation. The mean age of the study population was 52 years (range, 22-73), in which 52% were female and 90% were white. Average bone density values were significantly lower than expected for age, race, and sex, with Z-scores for the femoral neck and spine of -0.50 (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.63 to -0.37; p=0.0003) and -0.69 (95% CI -0.85 to -0.52; p=0.0001), respectively. Sixty-one subjects (71%) exhibited reduced BMD (T-score of femoral neck or spine

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