Suppressing Effect Of Free Triiodothyronine On The Negative Association Between Body Mass Index And Serum Osteocalcin Levels In Euthyroid Population

Previous studies found that thyroid hormones stimulate osteoblast-like cells to secrete osteocalcin. We aimed to investigate the association between serum thyroid hormone and serum osteocalcin in euthyroid population. The study recruited 1152 community-based euthyroid subjects (average age 59 +/- 8 years), among whom 677 were women. Serum free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and osteocalcin were measured by electrochemiluminescence immunoassays. After adjusting for age and gender, partial correlation analysis showed that FT3 and FT3/FT4 were both positively correlated with body mass index (BMI) and serum osteocalcin levels (all P<0.05) and BMI was negatively correlated with serum osteocalcin levels (P<0.01), while FT4 and TSH were not correlated with serum osteocalcin levels (all P>0.05). Age, gender, blood pressure, thyroid hormones, and multiple metabolic risk factors were included in the ridge regression model. FT3 and FT3/FT4 were independently and positively associated with serum osteocalcin levels (all P<0.05), while BMI was independently and negatively associated with serum osteocalcin levels (P<0.01). The mediating effect model showed that FT3 and FT3/FT4 suppressed the negative association between BMI and serum osteocalcin levels, with suppressing effects of 6.41% and 10.39%, respectively. In euthyroid subjects, both FT3 and FT3/FT4 were positively associated with serum osteocalcin levels, and they further suppressed the negative association between BMI and serum osteocalcin levels.