A new study found that when high blood pressure was induced in young mice, the mice suffered bone loss and osteoporosis-related bone damage comparable to older mice.
The study, which was presented on September 7, 2022, at the American Heart Association's Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2022, compared young mice with induced hypertension to older mice without hypertension to assess the potential relationship of hypertension and bone aging.
High blood pressure and osteoporosis are prevalent diseases, and people may have both at the same time. In this study, researchers examined inflammation associated with high blood pressure in mice and found it may be connected to osteoporosis.
"Bone marrow is where both new bone and new immune cells are produced. We suspect that more proinflammatory immune cells in the bone marrow may be leading to damage of the bone and making it weaker," says Elizabeth Maria Hennen, lead study author and PhD candidate in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University. "By understanding how hypertension contributes to osteoporosis, we may be able to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and better protect people later in life from having fragility fractures and a lower quality of life."
The results of the study led Hennen to say, "We should screen for osteoporosis in people with high blood pressure."
Read the full study at newsroom.heart.org/news/high-blood-pressure-may-accelerate-bone-aging.