Association Between Serum Ferritin Levels and Low Bone Mineral Density in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Women

Abstract

As women go through menopause, serum estrogen decreases, and ferritin increases. Ferritin is an essential component of the body, but many studies have stated that ferritin, which exceeds the normal physiological range, may potentially cause health problems in women. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between bone mineral density and serum ferritin levels in post-menopausal women and to evaluate serum ferritin levels as a potential biomarker for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Serum ferritin levels were measured in 62 postmenopausal women with low bone mineral density, and in 18 postmenopausal healthy control women using a standardized Enzyme-Linked Immune Sorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Bone mineral density BMD was assessed at the lumbar spine and femoral neck. The mean serum ferritin level was significantly higher in the postmenopausal women with low BMD group (group 1) than in the normal control group (group 2), respectively (mean=262.69 vs. 181.44 ng/ml, (P<0.05), and serum ferritin level was negatively correlated with BMD among low BMD postmenopausal women's group (R= -0.628, P=0.0001), and in the healthy postmenopausal group (R= -0.052, P=0.838). A comparison of the BMD between spine and femur neck sites shows that the frequency of low BMD in the spine site is higher than the femur neck site. Our findings show that increased serum ferritin levels were associated with low bone mineral density in postmenopausal osteoporosis.