Methods: Young (12-weeks old) and old (96-weeks old) rats were using a morphometrical analysis. A total of six male Wister rats were used, three per age group. Rats were kept each in a cage controlled at a constant condition. After anaesthesia, all animals were sacrificed and the femora, tibiae and heads were extracted. All experiments were performed according to the guidelines of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Showa University. The specimens were scanned and analyzed by using X-ray micro-CT system (Shimadzu Co, Kyoto, Japan). Further, 3D reconstruction and structure analysis was performed.
Results: We showed that trabecular bone volume (BV/TV), travecular number (Tb.N), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) and bone mineral density (BMD) decreased with age. However, trabecular bone pattern factor (TBPf) increased with age.
Conclusion: The results confirmed that aging induced the decrease of bone volume and the changes of bone structure.