adequate serum copper concentration could improve bone density, postpone bone loss and protect osteoporosis in women

background: to determine the protective impact of efficient serum copper concentration on bmd in women and to asses its impression on bone. methods: six hundred healthy women through a national project in iran, imos, were selected via a cluster random sam pling and enrolled the study. they were divided to pre menopausal (404/600, 67.7% of total) and post menopausal (190/600, 32%of total) groups. bmd was measured by biphotonic absorptimetry dexa for hip and lumbar spine. morning serum copper concentration was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. results: mean age was 40.92±14.8yr .mean serum copper concentration= 105.85±40.15µg/dl and mean bmi= 27.13±4.81 kg/m2.totaly 2.4% was smoking, 5% had regular physical activities three times a week and 17.5% was copper deficient. prevalence of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women was 12.9% in copper deficient persons vs.11.3% in normal serum copper ones. no significant difference found according to serum copper concentration associated with bmi, age and vita min d. spine bmd revealed a significant correlation with serum copper content. (p= 0.001). this correlation also existed for total hip (p< 0.05). premenopausal women with serum copper level above 105 µg/dl revealed a significant difference in hip bmd compared to whom with less copper concentration.1.02± 0.13kg/m2 vs. 0.97± 0.13kg/m2 (p = 0.001). copper had an independent role on determining hip bmd in pre menopaused women (p= 0.001). conclusion: copper has an independent role on bone density in all healthy women. it could have an adjourning factor for bone loss as well as a protective agent for osteoporosis.