Nuclear Techniques Investigation On The Role Of Trace Elements In Bone

The Proton Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) technique has been used in this thesis to investigate the change of elemental content in rat bones. Preliminary work has been done on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) technique to investigate the Ca structure in bone.Osteoporosis is the most common bone disease among the old people. It was reported that, about 50-70% of the old people over the age of 60 years have osteoporosis. In this study the rats of different ages have been used to investigate age dependence of the bone element contents. The femur and lumbar bones were chosen for their more susceptibility to fracture. The Sprague-Dawley (S.D) rats with ages ranging from 1 to 25 month (25 month-old-rat is equivalent to 80 year-old-human) were used.The results have shown that in the rat bone, the contents of phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), and strontium (Sr) were increased with age from child to adult. For the reduction of hormone in the rat body, the content of P, Ca and Sr are attained during the half of life, while progressive bone loss is apparent during the second half of the rat's life, especially for strontium. In addition, during the life of rat, the content of zinc in bone was increased with age.Numerous studies have reported the mass loss of calcium and phosphorus for osteoporosis. But few work concerned with zinc and strontium.