Association between Plasma Pentraxin 3 Levels and Bone Mineral Density in Elderly Koreans: the Dong-gu Study

BACKGROUND: We investigated the association between pentraxin 3 (PTX3), a novel inflammatory marker, and bone mineral density (BMD) in the general Korean population. METHODS: We selected a sub-cohort of 1,440 subjects (757 men and 683 women) from participants in the community-based Dong-gu Study. The mean age was 66.0 ± 8.1 years for men and 63.7 ± 7.9 years for women. The plasma PTX3 levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and BMD was measured in the femoral neck and lumbar spine using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between the plasma PTX3 levels and BMD. RESULTS: PTX3 was inversely associated with the BMD of the lumbar spine (P = 0.010) and femoral neck (P < 0.001) in men but not in women. For men, the association with the BMD of the femoral neck remained after adjustment for multiple comparison (P = 0.020). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that PTX3 levels might be inversely associated with BMD in elderly men.