Lack of Association Between Select Circulating miRNAs and Bone Mass, Turnover, and Fractures: Data From the OFELY Cohort

Abstract

Postmenopausal osteoporosis is characterized by the occurrence of fragility fracture with an increase in morbidity and mortality. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have raised interest as regulators of translational repression, mediating a number of key processes, including bone tissue in both physiological and diseased states. The aim of this study was to examine the serum levels of 32 preselected miRNAs with reported function in bone and their association with osteoporotic fracture. We performed cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses from the OFELY Cohort. Serum levels of the miRNAs were quantified by qRT-PCR in 682 women: 99 premenopausal and 583 postmenopausal women, with 1 and 122 women with prevalent fragility fractures in each group, respectively. We have collected clinical variables (such as age, prevalent, and incident fractures), bone turnover markers (BTMs), BMD by dual X-ray absorptiometry, and bone microarchitecture with HRpQCT. We observed a number of miRNAs to be associated with fragility fractures (prevalent or incident), BTMs, BMD, and microarchitecture. This effect, however, was negated after age adjustment. This may be because age was also strongly associated with the serum levels of the 32 miRNAs (correlation coefficient up to 0.49), confirming previous findings. In conclusion, in a well-characterized prospective cohort with a sizeable sample size, we found no evidence that these 32 preselected miRNAs were not associated with BTMs, BMD, microarchitecture, and or fragility fractures. © 2019 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.