Zaretsky Janna, Griess-Fishheimer Shelley, Carmi Adi, Travinsky Shmul Tamara, Ofer Lior, Sinai Tali, Penn Svetlana, Shahar Ron, Monsonego-Ornan Efrat
School of Nutrition Science, Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, The Hebrew University, Rehovot, 76100, Israel.
Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, The Hebrew University, Rehovot, 76100, Israel.
Bone Res. 2021 Feb 26;9(1):14. doi: 10.1038/s41413-020-00127-9.
Ultra-processed foods have known negative implications for health; however, their effect on skeletal development has never been explored. Here, we show that young rats fed ultra-processed food rich in fat and sugar suffer from growth retardation due to lesions in their tibial growth plates. The bone mineral density decreases significantly, and the structural parameters of the bone deteriorate, presenting a sieve-like appearance in the cortices and poor trabecular parameters in long bones and vertebrae. This results in inferior mechanical performance of the entire bone with a high fracture risk. RNA sequence analysis of the growth plates demonstrated an imbalance in extracellular matrix formation and degradation and impairment of proliferation, differentiation and mineralization processes. Our findings highlight, for the first time, the severe impact of consuming ultra-processed foods on the growing skeleton. This pathology extends far beyond that explained by the known metabolic effects, highlighting bone as a new target for studies of modern diets.
超加工食品对健康有已知的负面影响；然而，其对骨骼发育的影响从未被探究过。在此，我们表明，喂食富含脂肪和糖的超加工食品的幼鼠，因其胫骨生长板受损而出现生长迟缓。骨矿物质密度显著降低，骨骼的结构参数恶化，皮质呈现筛状外观，长骨和椎骨的小梁参数不佳。这导致整个骨骼的力学性能较差，骨折风险较高。生长板的RNA序列分析表明，细胞外基质形成和降解失衡，增殖、分化和矿化过程受损。我们的研究结果首次凸显了食用超加工食品对正在生长的骨骼的严重影响。这种病理现象远远超出了已知代谢效应所能解释的范围，突出了骨骼作为现代饮食研究的一个新靶点。
