Bone mineral density and body composition in male children with hypogonadism

Estrogen deficiency in females and androgen deficiency in males may harm periosteal and endosteal apposition, reduce bone size and both cortical and trabecular thickness, modifying in this way the bone structure later in life. To date, few systematic studies on bone mineral density (BMD) and hypogonadism in adolescents are available. Therefore we aimed to determine if sexual hormone deficiency during pubertal age might have an impact on peak bone mass and body composition. We compared areal BMD (L-aBMD), volumetric lumbar spine BMD (L-vBMD), lumbar spine Z-score (L-Z-score), lumbar spine bone mineral content (L-BMC), whole body (wbBMD), normalized whole body (n-wbBMD) BMD, and whole body BMC (wb-BMC) of 25 male children with hypogonadism (HYPO) with 37 sex-, age-, and body mass index-matched healthy subjects (CNT) using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Furthermore we analyzed whether a difference in lean (lean%) and fat (fat%) mass as percentage of body weight and as a lean/fat ratio is present in the two groups of children. HYPO demonstrated a statistically lower L-aBMD, LvBMD, L-BMC, Z score, wbBMD, n-wbBMD, and wb-BMC compared to CNT. CNT showed a higher lean% and lower fat% and a higher lean/fat ratio when compared with HYPO group. Lean mass correlated positively with L-aBMD, L-BMC, and wb-BMC. Our study seems to confirm previous observations that sex hormone deficiency during puberty reduces bone mass accrual. Body composition alterations may play a role in bone parameters during development in healthy as such as in hypogonadal children during developmental age.