Relation of age, gender, and bone mass to circulating sclerostin levels in women and men

Abstract

Sclerostin is a potent inhibitor of Wnt signaling and bone formation. However, there is currently no information on the relation of circulating sclerostin levels to age, gender, or bone mass in humans. Thus we measured serum sclerostin levels in a population-based sample of 362 women [123 premenopausal, 152 postmenopausal not on estrogen treatment (ET), and 87 postmenopausal on ET] and 318 men, aged 21 to 97 years. Sclerostin levels (mean±SEM) were significantly higher in men than women (33.3±1.0pmol/L versus 23.7±0.6pmol/L, p