Effect of exercise on the development of osteoporosis in adult rats

The role of moderate exercise in the prevention of high-turnover osteoporosis was investigated by the use of an animal model. The effect of chronic training on gravimetric, mineral, physical, and histological parameters of normal bone was also examined. Fifty-six adult female Long-Evans rats were divided into four groups: sedentary (C) and exercising controls (E) and sedentary (O) and exercising osteoporotics (EO). Exercising animals ran 4 h/wk for 1 yr. Two percent NH4Cl added to drinking water induced osteoporosis as shown by significantly lower femoral density and breaking strength and histomorphometrically quantified tibial trabecular bone volume but a normal mineral-to-matrix ratio in the O rats. The development of high-turnover osteoporosis in O rats was confirmed by significantly higher alkaline phosphatase activity (P less than 0.05), urinary hydroxyproline content (P less than 0.01), resorption surfaces (P less than 0.01), and histological parameters of bone formation (P less than 0.01). Exercise prevented all these biochemical, biophysical, and histological abnormalities in the EO group. Exercise had no influence on the density of normal femurs but tended to increase their breaking strength (by 11%) compared with femurs of C rats (P = 0.11).