The serotonin and the bone assessment

Introduction. Lately, the in vitro and in vivo studies on serotonin metabolism pointed their influence in bone health. In addition, there are no particular recommendations in performing the serum serotonin assessment in order to evaluate the skeletal status. Aim. We aimed to correlate the bone turnover markers and lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) with serotonin. Material and Methods. There is a cross-sectional study in Caucasian postmenopausal women. They were not diagnosed with carcinoid syndrome, or bone anomalies, and received no treatment (including antiresorptives). We performed the bone formation markers: serum alkaline phosphatase (AP), serum osteocalcin (OC), and the bone resorption marker: serum CrossLaps (CL). Serum serotonin (high-pressure liquid chromatography), as well as central DXA (GE Prodigy) were assessed. Results. 191 women of 57.1 years mean age were grouped according to DXA (WHO criteria). The linear regression analysis between serum serotonin and CL was not statistically significant (SS), between serotonin and OC was SS in the newly diagnosed osteoporosis group (N=40, r=0.4, p=0.03), between serotonin and AP we found SS in osteopenia group (N=88, r=0.24, p=0.03), with no changes when adjusting for age and BMI. The partial correlation between serotonin and BMD was not SS. Discussion. The study raises the question of serotonin as a bone metabolism marker seeing that the results were not consistent. The main limit of our study is that we did not analyze the possible use of antidepressants by these women. Overall, this is a pilot study in clinical practice in which few reports have been published yet, but still necessary because the use of serum serotonin in current skeletal evaluation is still unclear.