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ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION |
1 From Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (MB, BRM, GPM, ZJ, and CMW); San Diego State University, San Diego, CA (MK); and the Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN (MP)
2 Supported by the National Institutes of Health (AR 40553). 3 Address reprint requests to CM Weaver, Purdue University, Foods and Nutrition, 1264 Stone Hall, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059. E-mail: weavercm{at}purdue.edu.
| ABSTRACT |
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Objective: The objective was to determine calcium retention in adolescent boys in response to a range of controlled intakes and to compare the intake needed for maximal retention in boys with that needed in adolescent girls studied under the same conditions.
Design: Thirty-one boys aged 1215 y participated in 3-wk metabolic balance studies testing a range (7002100 mg/d) of calcium intakes in a crossover study design with a 2-wk washout period. Calcium intake was varied by using a beverage fortified with calcium citrate malate. After a 1-wk equilibration period, calcium retention was calculated as dietary calcium intake minus the calcium excreted in the feces and urine over the following 2 wk. The dietary intake at which maximal calcium retention occurred was determined by using a nonlinear regression model. The results in boys were compared with those obtained in 35 adolescent girls previously studied under the same protocol.
Results: Maximal calcium retention in boys was achieved at an intake of 1140 mg/d. Calcium retention was higher (by 171 ± 38 mg/d) in boys than in girls at all calcium intakes studied.
Conclusion: The higher calcium retention in boys than in girls was attained through higher net calcium absorption and lower urinary excretion than in girls.
Key Words: Dietary calcium requirement calcium retention adolescents boys metabolic balance
| INTRODUCTION |
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In adolescents, sex differences exist in both the age at which peak calcium accretion in the skeleton occurs and in the amount of calcium accrued. On the basis of a longitudinal study of total bone mineral density measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) throughout puberty in a cohort of boys and girls, peak bone accrual rates were 407 g/y in boys and 322 g/y in girls (2). In boys, the peak bone accrual rate occurred 18 mo later than in girls (2). By the end of adolescence, boys have a higher total-body bone mineral content than do girls (3, 4). It is unknown, however, whether the development of a larger skeleton in boys requires more dietary calcium intake to optimize calcium retention or whether boys utilize dietary calcium more efficiently than do girls.
We set out to establish the dietary calcium requirements of boys by using the same approach that we previously used in girls (5). The relation between dietary calcium intake and calcium retention was studied in adolescent boys in a 21-d metabolic balance study of 2 calcium intakes ranging between 700 and 2000 mg/d in a crossover design.
| SUBJECTS AND METHODS |
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Self-assessed pubertal status was determined by Tanner stage (6) with the use of a questionnaire administered by a research coordinator. Total-body bone mineral density and bone mineral content were measured by DXA (Lunar Corp, Madison, WI). The subjects' heights and weights were measured at the time of DXA scanning with a wall stadiometer and a calibrated electronic scale, respectively, while the subjects were wearing light clothing and no shoes. Weight was measured daily throughout the study to monitor health. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Purdue University and Indiana University School of Medicine and Clarian.
Study design
The subjects lived on the Purdue University campus in university housing for two 3-wk periods of the summer (June to August) in a camp environment. An established set of protocols was used for conducting metabolic balance studies in adolescent children at research camps, including menus, activities, and laboratory procedures. Because the methods used for the boys in the current study were the same as those used for the girls in a previous study (5), data from both sexes were compared.
The subjects were studied twice: once during a relatively low dietary calcium intake and once during a relatively high calcium intake. The 3-wk balance studies were performed in a randomized order, separated by a washout period of 2 wk. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 5 dietary calcium intakes such that the 10 dietary intakes from the lowest to the highest spanned from 693 to 1986 mg/d (Table 1
) to bracket the threshold intake of the girls in the previous study (5).
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The calcium intakes were varied by using a beverage fortified with calcium citrate malate at different calcium concentrations. Orange drinks fortified or unfortified with calcium citrate malate were a gift from Proctor & Gamble (Cincinnati, OH) and blended by the study staff to achieve equal volumes of appropriate calcium content. Fortified beverages were served with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Beverage glasses containing calcium-rich fluids such as milk and juice were rinsed with deionized water, and the rinse was also consumed. A daily meal composite was frozen for the analysis of mineral content. The meal composite was prepared at the same time and to the same specifications as the meals. Diet composites were thawed, homogenized, and freeze-dried (Dura-Dry Freeze-Dryer model PAC-TC-44; FTS Systems Inc, Stone Ridge, NY) for composition analysis.
Sample collection and analysis
Subjects collected all urine and feces for the duration of each 3-wk study period. Urine was collected in acid-washed containers and pooled as 24-h collections, which ended with the collection taken on rising on the morning of each day. Urine samples were processed daily, and total urine volume was measured. The urine was acidified with concentrated hydrochloric acid (1%, by vol) and frozen at 10 °C. Acidified duplicate urine samples were thawed and diluted with 3% HNO3 for the measurement of calcium content. Fecal samples were collected in preweighed containers and immediately frozen. Fecal samples were also pooled as 24-h collections. Fecal samples pooled by 24-h collections were diluted with concentrated hydrochloric acid and ultrahigh purity water (resistivity: >16 M
) and homogenized with a stomacher (Lab-Blender 3500; Tekmar, Cincinnati, OH). Aliquots were sampled in triplicate, dried at 48 °C, ashed at 600 °C, and diluted with 3% HNO3 for the measurement of calcium. Diet and fecal samples were prepared similarly. The calcium contents in the diet and fecal and urine samples were measured by inductively coupled plasma spectrophotometry (Optical Emission Spectrometer, Optima 4300DV; Perkin-Elmer, Shelton, CT).
Compliance measures
Creatinine was used both to assess urine collection compliance based on a constant daily urinary creatinine excretion and to adjust for incomplete and overcomplete 24-h collections. Urinary creatinine was measured according to a colorimetric procedure on a Cobas-Mira Plus (Roche Diagnostic Systems, Branchburg, NJ). Corrected urinary calcium was calculated as
![]() | (1) |
Retention calculation
Calcium retention was calculated by subtracting the sum of urinary and fecal calcium excretion from dietary calcium intake. The first week of each 3-wk study was regarded as an equilibration period to the diet. A balance period began and ended on a day on which a fecal sample was collected and included all days in between each. The sum of intake minus the sum of excretion was averaged over the time period of compliance.
Statistical analysis
Analysis of variance and regression were used to examine the effects of calcium intake, study period, and order on calcium retention, urinary calcium, and fecal calcium. These variables were modeled as a function of calcium intake by using nonlinear regression. Model building methods were used to determine an appropriate functional form to describe the nonlinear relation between calcium intake and calcium retention (8). We examined a variety of models, including some that allowed for the possibility of negative estimates of retention. This process led to a model of the form
![]() | (2) |
For the comparison of boys and girls, models with distinct parameters were examined. An analysis of these models indicated that there were no statistically significant sex differences in the parameters ß0, ß1, and ß2. This led to a model with a linear term, g, to describe sex differences:
![]() | (3) |
| RESULTS |
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The shapes of the curves describing the relation between calcium retention and calcium intake for boys and girls were not distinguishable, but the level of the curves varied with sex. The fitted model for the sex difference in calcium retention was as follows:
![]() | (4) |
Calcium retention was higher in the boys than in the girls, by an average of 171 ± 38 mg Ca/d, and the difference was consistent across intakes (Figure 3
). The addition of measures of body size to the model did not eliminate the sex differences.
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| DISCUSSION |
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The usual mean intake of adolescent boys and girls is 1000 and 900 mg Ca/d, respectively, according to published dietary surveys (16, 17). Application of the nonlinear model developed in the present study allowed us to predict calcium retention at different calcium intakes for each sex. Calcium retention in girls is predicted to double, from 158 to 316 mg Ca/d, if the usual intake of 900 mg Ca/d is increased to the recommended intake of 1300 mg Ca/d (1). The increase in calcium retention in boys is also predicted to be 158 mg/d if the calcium intake is increased from 900 to 1300 mg /d, but this represents only a 32% increase because of the higher calcium retention efficiency at an intake of 900 mg Ca/d in boys.
Bailey et al (2) estimated calcium accretion using longitudinal bone densitometry measurements. Daily calcium retention during the adolescent growth spurt was estimated to be 359 mg/d for boys (199574 mg/d) and 284 mg/d for girls (171459 mg/d). Mean (±SD) calcium intakes, estimated by dietary recall, were 1140 ± 392 mg/d for boys and 1113 ± 378 mg/d for girls. These estimates of calcium retention are lower than those measured in the present study, which was conducted under controlled conditions and using optimal calcium intakes. Also, the sex difference of 75 mg Ca/d was less than our estimate of 177 mg Ca/d.
Urinary calcium excretion was higher in the girls than in the boys at the same calcium intake. Abrams et al (18) also reported that urinary calcium excretion was greater in girls (93.9 ± 43.8 mg/d) than in boys (66.9 ± 26.2 mg/d). Calcium intake accounted for 0.2% of the variance in urinary calcium excretion in boys, in contrast with 6% of the variance in urinary calcium in girls (5).
Compared with the girls, who were studied during pubertal growth, the boys had higher calcium retention at all intakes. The addition of measures of body size into the model did not eliminate the sex differences observed in the current study. This higher calcium retention was achieved through lower urinary output and higher net calcium absorption in the boys. Ongoing stable-isotope kinetic and biochemical analyses in boys will provide further insight into sex differences in calcium metabolism. Sex steroid hormones, but not calciotropic hormones, were different by sex in a large cohort of Indiana children (3), which makes them more likely candidates of regulators of calcium and bone metabolism. The calcium retention curve for boys, as a function of calcium intake, was higher but parallel to the curve for girls. Thus, boys utilize calcium more efficiently than do girls and do not require higher calcium intakes to achieve their larger skeletons.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank the staff of Camp Calcium and the study subjects.
| REFERENCES |
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