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Department of Nutrition, Schools of Public Health and Medicine (J.J.B.A., X.C., A.B., M.K.), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health (M.S.), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Department of Radiology, School of Medicine (J.B.R.), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
TPMC, Inc., Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (S.C.G.)
Address reprint requests to: Dr. John Anderson, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400. E-mail: jjb_anderson{at}unc.edu
| ABSTRACT |
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Objectives: In this controlled, double-blind intervention, we tested the hypothesis that an isoflavone-rich soy protein diet increases BMC and BMD in young adult females over a period of one year in comparison to a control group receiving soy protein that has isoflavones removed.
Design: Young healthy women of any ethnic background, 21 to 25 years of age, were divided into two groups, placebo (n = 13) and supplement (n = 15). The soy protein supplement was enriched with isoflavones (
90 mg of total isoflavones/day), whereas the control protein diet was isoflavone-deficient, even though it contained the same amount of soy protein and other ingredients as the isoflavone-rich diet. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometric (DXA) measurements of BMC and BMD were made at baseline and at 6 and 12 months. DXA estimates of body composition, including fat mass and lean body mass, were generated from whole-body BMC measurements. BMI was calculated as weight (kg) over height (m) squared. Physical activity was assessed, and three-day dietary records were taken at entry (baseline) and at 6 and 12 months.
Results: No changes in BMD after 12 months were found in either the isoflavone-treated (treatment) group or the isoflavone-deficient (control) group. Other variables also remained essentially constant over the 12-month period, including normal menstrual patterns in both the treatment and control groups.
Conclusions: The isoflavone-rich soy preparation had no effects on BMC and BMD over a 12-month period in young healthy adult females with normal menses. An isoflavone-rich supplement appears to have little or no effect on bone in young adult women with normal ovarian function, at least over this 12-month study period.
Key words: soy-based supplement, isoflavones, genistein, daidzein, bone mineral content (BMC), bone mineral density (BMD), young adult women, prospective study
| INTRODUCTION |
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This study tested the hypothesis that a soy protein supplement rich in isoflavones, containing genistein, daidzein and glycitein, will increase bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in young adult females over a one-year period in comparison to a control group consuming isoflavone-depleted soy protein. Previous reports have suggested that young adult females may still increase peak bone mass and density during these important early adult years of bone consolidation from bone-enhancing dietary factors [1213]. The dose selected for this study, i.e., approximately 90 mg of total isoflavones (both glycones and aglycones), was selected based on previous studies of peri- or post-menopausal women which used a nearly identical dose of isoflavone-enriched soy protein from the same producer.
| METHODS |
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Recruitment, Entry and Follow-up
Subjects were recruited by local advertising (notices on bulletin boards, flyers sent to organizations, local papers) in the Chapel Hill and Research Triangle areas. Rolling enrollment occurred over approximately 18 months, and assignment of subjects to treatment or control alternated in the order of enrollment. When a drop-out occurred, a new subject was added as soon as possible to equalize the numbers in the two groups. Individuals from all racial/ethnic groups were eligible to participate, but only three non-Caucasian subjects (two Americans of Asian background and one Native American) completed the study.
Initial screening and baseline measurements were made after subjects had met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and signed the consent form. The identity of control and treatment materials was not known to subjects or investigators. A pregnancy test was performed on each subject at the General Clinical Research Center (standard kit) to determine further eligibility. Measurements included baseline bone and body composition. A brief questionnaire with key health, physical activity and dietary questions, as well as a dietary recall (one-day recall and two subsequent days of records), were also recorded at baseline.
Supplements (see below) were provided for a month at a time. When they were picked up, the subjects were queried as to their compliance during the past month. Only 28 of 38 subjects who met inclusion/exclusion criteria completed the 12-months of study. Ten subjects dropped out after participating for more than a month. They dropped out for different reasons: four began using disqualifying medications, three moved away and three left for other unspecified reasons.
Subjects maintained normal menstrual cycles (nine or more menses during the 12 months) throughout the study, but one subject in the treatment group and one subject in the control group had only eight menses during the twelve months of study. Body fat content (mass), measured by DXA, ranged between 18% and 40% (Table 1) of total body weight in all subjects.
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Isoflavone-Enriched and Control Preparations
Isoflavone-enriched and control soy protein isolates were gifts from Protein Technologies International, Inc., St. Louis. Both were available in a powdered form and as a ready-to-drink chocolate liquid; subjects selected according to their preference. The daily treatment dose taken by half of the study subjects contained approximately 90 mg of isoflavones (59% as glycones or glucosides; the remainder as aglycones), including at least 50 mg of genistein in both the glycone and aglycone forms. A control preparation, lacking the isoflavones, was provided; this soy isolate is similar to the isoflavone-enriched preparation, but some components, about which we have no information, may be removed during the alcohol-extraction process.
Compliance was monitored by having subjects record the days when they missed taking the supplement. A rough estimate of compliance was also achieved by noting when the monthly supply of supplements was picked up. Only one person recorded a lapse of more than seven days (one gap of one month and a subsequent one of one week). Her total time in the study was increased by almost two months to make up for the gaps in the use of supplements. After the subject treatment code was broken, she was found to be part of the group that had been receiving control soy preparation.
Anthropometrical Measurements
Measurements of height (m) and weight (kg) were made and body mass index (BMI) was calculated from these measurements as weight divided by height squared.
Bone Measurements
At baseline and six and twelve months, BMC and BMD were measured by dual energy-x-ray absorptiometry (DXA, Hologic Model 1000-W, Waltham, MA) at several sites, including the whole body and regional sites of interest. Precision of the DXA scans using human subjects was approximately 1.5% at the lumbar vertebrae and 2.0% at other sites. In vitro precision was less than 1%. These measurements were made in the Radiology Department of the University of North Carolina Hospitals.
Dietary Intake Assessment
Three times during the study, three days of dietary data (24-hour recall plus a self-administered record of two days of recorded intake) were collected and analyzed. Amounts of nutrient variables were averaged at each time-point before computing an overall average for a subject. All participants received at least 900 mg of calcium from the soy products (treatment or placebo), in addition to their usual calcium intake from food. The nutrient composition program, Food Processor, Version 7.4 (ESHA Research, Salem, OR), was used for dietary assessment.
Physical Activity Assessment
A self-reported scale of activities was used. Each subject estimated her current and past activities from inactive (0) to very active (3), and a composite score was calculated.
Statistical Analyses
Statistical comparisons of baseline characteristics and of bone and dietary measurements of the study subjects from baseline to 12 months were performed by the SAS procedure of paired t test (Version 8.0, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC). Multiple regression analysis was used to determine if change in calcium intake over the 12-month period had an effect on change in BMD over the same period. A value of p < 0.05 was considered significant.
| RESULTS |
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Only baseline and 12-month data are included in the Results because the six-month data were very similar to the 12-month data.
Body Composition Measurements
The mean fat mass of the treatment and control groups remained remarkably similar from baseline to 12 months. LBM also changed little in the two groups over the 12-month period. No significant differences of these variables were found between measurement times.
Bone Measurements
Few differences were found in BMD and BMC measurements between the two groups at baseline or after 12 months, but for two sites BMC values, femoral neck and intertrochanter, were significantly reduced in the supplement group (Table 2). BMD changes were insignificant except for the femoral neck. Differences between control and treatment groups were only significant for the femoral neck and intertrochanter, both declines in the treatment group (Table 2).
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| DISCUSSION |
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90 mg per day) on BMD, considered a better index for the comparative evaluation of bone health than BMC in adults, does not support our original hypothesis. Our findings suggest that any gains in BMD from consumption of an isoflavone-rich diet in healthy young adult women with normal menstrual cycles are unlikely. Because these results in normally cycling young women are clearly different from the findings of post- [4] and peri-menopausal women [5], who were administered similar doses of isoflavones (total), from practically the same soy protein preparation, an explanation for a lack of an effect in our intervention may be the difference in estrogen status of the young subjects, i.e., with sufficient ovarian function, compared to the older menopausal or peri-menopausal subjects, i.e., with ovarian hormone deficiency. The mechanism through which isoflavones are thought to benefit bone in estrogen-depleted menopausal women relates to actions of the isoflavones on estrogen receptors and other cellular pathways of bone osteoblastic cells [14]. Studies using an ovariectomized (OVX) animal model by our group [8] and others [7,9] have clearly demonstrated significant positive skeletal effects of soy protein or genistein preparations at doses comparable to the effects of physiological doses of estrogenic molecules in young estrogen-depleted rodents. A biphasic response to the isoflavone-rich soy preparation has also been reported in these OVX rat models [8]; this suggests that high doses may have suboptimal benefits or even adverse effects on the animals. Interpretation of these animal-based results suggests that, at modest doses, the soy isoflavones, or genistein alone, appear to act as an agonist at the estrogen receptor (ER), whereas at higher doses the isoflavones may be less effective in their effects on bone. In addition to the effects of isoflavones on the estrogen receptors of bone cells, genistein and other isoflavones may also exert additional actions that generally enhance osteoblastic cell functions and reduce osteoclast-mediated bone resorption [1517]. At dietarily achievable levels, genistein has been shown to function as a weak estrogen agonist in osteoblast-like cells via ERs [14,18].
Young adult women may be beyond the window of opportunity for skeletal benefits because ovarian hormone production maintains sufficiently high circulating concentrations of estrogen. Increased intakes of isoflavones from soy consumption early in adult life probably are not able to improve bone mass, because the ERs of osteoblasts have a greater affinity for estradiol than for genistein or daidzein [19]. The isoflavones may have agonistic effects on bone, but the effects of endogenous estrogens are far greater so that the effects of the isoflavone benefits are overshadowed, as suggested by Duncan et al. [20]. This interpretation probably also extends to pre-menopausal adult Asian women who consume large amounts of soy products on a regular basis, but may not hold for post-menopausal Asian women whose bone mass may benefit from routine soy consumption [21].
Although isoflavones had no skeletal benefits in the healthy young women of this study, the women may have received other benefits from soy, but these were not measured. For example, their cardiovascular and other systems may have benefited from soy protein consumption [22].
No adverse effects from the supplementation with the isoflavone-rich preparation, such as gastrointestinal disturbances, were reported by the subjects. Body composition values of fat mass and LBM changed very little over the year, and throughout the 12 months, menstrual cycles remained normal for almost all subjects regardless of treatment. Every indication from the subjects themselves suggests that the isoflavone-rich soy preparation was safe.
Limitations of this study are several, including a small sample size and a 26% drop-out rate. We think that selection bias was not introduced by the alternating assignment of subjects to the two groups, nor by haphazard replacement of dropouts, but the study was not truly randomized. Despite the small sample size, the lack of any positive gains in BMC or BMD of the isoflavone-treated subjects makes unlikely any benefits to bone from additional amounts of isoflavones. Larger numbers of subjects in the two groups are unlikely to increase the chance of finding a skeletal benefit, since the estimates of effects were small or negative. At present, no other studies are available to confirm the negative results of this report. One year of study may be too short a time to be able to determine if isoflavones have the potential for a long-term reduction of osteoporosis and fracture risks, but in studies of peri- or postmenopausal women six months was sufficient to show differences between treatment and control groups. Longer controlled investigations, similar to the present one, are needed to establish an effect of isoflavones as bone-promoting and anti-osteoporotic agents.
In summary, the isoflavone-rich preparation had no effect on BMC or BMD of the whole body or of several specific skeletal sites (lumbar spine and proximal femur) after one year of treatment in young healthy adult females with normal menses. The only differences in skeletal measurements found between control and isoflavone-treated subjects are considered of little meaning and inconsistent with the rest of the findings. These results from healthy young women suggest that isoflavones have little influence on bone compared to endogenous estrogens. The use of pure genistein to determine if this isoflavone can improve bone mass and density in a controlled randomized clinical trial would be an excellent basis for a future study.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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Received August 1, 2001. Accepted April 19, 2002.
| REFERENCES |
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