Effects of isoflavone supplementation on the bone mineral density of growing female rats

This study was focused on whether or not isoflavones affect the increase in bone mineral density of growing females. Female Sprague-Dawley rats ($60{\pm}5\;g$) were randomly assigned to two groups and provided control diets (control group) or isoflavone-supplemented diet (IF group, 57.8 mg isoflavones/100 g diet) for 9 weeks in growing female rats. Measurements of Bone Mineral Density (BMD) and Bone Mineral Content (BMC) on the experimental animals were executed in the $3^{rd}$, $6^{th}$, $9^{th}$ weeks. In result, there was no significant difference in spine BMD between the isoflavones supplemented group and the control group. But, the IF group tended to have higher BMD than the control group in between 3 and 9 experimental weeks, and the striking difference could be shown in the $6^{th}$ week of feeding. In case of femur BMD, the effects of added isoflavones appeared in the $6^{th}$ week of feeding, and it became intensified in the $9^{th}$ week of feeding to the extent that the BMD in the IF group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p<0.05). In conclusion, isoflavone supplementation increased spine BMD per weight in the $6^{th}$ week of feeding, and affected the increase of femur BMD in the $9^{th}$ week. The result of the experiment implies that it affects positively the formation of spine and femur BMD of growing female rats. The study also suggests that the effects of isoflavone on the pattern of BMD formation might differ from the parts of bones.