Fig. 5: High-fat diet and aging alter bone turnover.

a Endocortical mineralizing surface (E. MS/BS) and b periosteal mineralizing surface (P. MS/BS) evaluated from quantitative histomorphometry are local measures of bone mineralization. c The whole-bone Opg:Rankl ratio gene expression from marrow-flushed tibiae and d blood serum P1NP:CTX1 ratio are global markers of bone turnover. e Tartrate resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive osteoclast number density and f bone marrow adipose tissue (bMAT) adipocyte number density from the tibia metaphysis are measures related to cellular activity necessary for bone turnover. Boxplots illustrate the interquartile range (box), the minimum and maximum values (whiskers), the median value (bar across the box), the mean value (white square), and individual data points (black circles). Colors indicate groups where light gray is young LFD females, dark gray is young HFD females, light blue is aged LFD females, dark blue is aged HFD females, light yellow is young LFD males, dark yellow is young HFD males, light red is aged LFD males, and dark red is aged HFD males. Significant p-values from 3-way ANOVA and pairwise post-hoc tests are noted on the plots. For all models, the glucose area under the curve (AUC) was considered as a covariate. If the covariate was not significant, the model was rerun without it. N = 5–11 animals/group without outliers, but statistical results with specific n per group for each measure can be found in Supplementary Data 1.