title: Transforming Growth Factor β1 (TGF-β1) in the Sera of Postmenopausal Osteoporotic Females.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a major cause of morbidity in postmenopausal females. Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and interleukin 18 (IL-18) play complex roles in normal bone metabolism, and in pathophysiology of postmenopausal osteoporosis.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to design an analytic cross sectional study in order to further clarify the role of TGF-β1 and IL-18 in osteoporosis of postmenopausal females.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross sectional study including 65 postmenopausal osteoporotic females as cases and 69 postmenopausal females of similar age without osteoporosis as controls was conducted. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to determine bone mass density (BMD) of participants and T-scoring was applied to establish whether the patient has osteoporosis or not. Serum TGF-β1 and IL-18 levels were measured by quantitative sandwich Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum TGF-β1 levels were significantly higher in osteoporotic postmenopausal females than non-osteoporotic individuals (23.8 vs. 15.8 ng/mL; P = 0.009). There was no difference between IL-18 levels in the sera of osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic postmenopausal females in this study. There was a positive correlation between body mass index (BMI) and serum level of TGF-β1 (P = 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that TGF-β1 serum levels is higher in osteoporotic postmenopausal females than non-osteoporotic ones, and probably aberrant increase in TGF-β1 in postmenopausal females can result in uncoupled bone resorption and formation, which leads to osteoporosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Aazam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faraji
authors.affiliation: Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Shabnam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abtahi
authors.affiliation: Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghaderi
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Alamtaj
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Samsami Dehaghani
keywords: IL-18; Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal; TGF-β1