Fig. 5

µCT analysis of male mice L5 vertebrae reveal early life improvements in CKO trabecular bone compared to f/f and Cre⁺ controls. (A) µCT parameters for male L5 vertebrae (f/f, Cre⁺ and CKO) at different time points (35 days, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months). BV/TV, Tb N and BS/TV are significantly increased while Tb Sp is significantly decreased for 35-day-old CKO mice compared to f/f and Cre⁺ controls. As with tibia, a Cre recombinase effect was observed at latter time points as BS/TV is significantly increased for 6-month-old Cre⁺ and CKO mice compared to f/f and Tb N is significantly increased for Cre⁺ and CKO mice compared to f/f at 12 months. In addition, at both 6 and 12 months, BMD for Cre⁺ and CKO are similar, and both are increased compared to f/f mice but not to a significant extent. (B) Line graph of male L5 vertebrae BMD over all time points shows no change between genotypes at early time points but similar increases for both Cre⁺ and CKO mice compared to f/f at 6 and 12 months. For One-way ANOVA, *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001, **** P ≤ 0.0001.