Fig. 1 Material properties of the femoral mid-diaphysis (top panels) and of the femoral distal epiphysis (bottom panels). After the 16-week treatments with risedronate and/or MK-4, the three-point bending test and compression test were carried out as

described in the “Materials and methods” section for the diaphyseal and epiphyseal mechanical strength analyses, respectively. Open and filled bars represent the sham selleck compound and OVX controls, respectively. The bars of graded shading represent the treatment groups. The data are expressed as the means ± SD and compared using an ANOVA and post hoc Dunnett’s multiple comparison test vs. OVX controls. *p < 0.05 was considered significant Changes in the cortical bone quality Right panels in Fig. 2 show the results at the 16-week termination. The OVX control group showed a significant decrease in the cortical BMD and BMC as well as thinning of the cortical Bcr-Abl inhibitor thickness and a decreased pSSI in comparison to the sham group. The final 16-week cortical BMD, BMC (Fig. 2a) and thickness (Fig. 2b) did not significantly change by any treatment from the 8-week stage except in the K to R cortical BMC. Among the treated groups, only the K to R group showed significantly higher values (lower in CSMI) than the OVX controls in all the parameters presented. Unless followed by risedronate, treatment by MK-4 did

not significantly increase mineral content or selleck chemical density neither in diaphysis nor in metaphysis. Only in the K to R group was CSMI significantly smaller FER than

the 16-week OVX control. The K to R femur alone also raised the pSSI value, the calculated index of strength, to the levels of the sham group during the later 8-week treatment by risedronate (Fig. 2b). When we compare CSMI values in the 16-week treatment groups to their respective 8-week values by the Student’s t test, many groups, including sham, OVX, R to K, R to WO, and K to WO, significantly increased the values during the later 8-week treatment. In the R/K to WO, CSMI retained similar high values with similarly large SD to the OVX-R/K 8-week midpoint. The R to WO group but not R/K to WO was also distinct showing significantly higher values than the OVX control in both cortical BMC and thickness. Fig. 2 Mineral and geometric properties at 8-week midpoint and 16-week termination. a Bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC) in femur diaphysis and metaphysis and (b) cortical thickness, CSMI, and the polar SSI in femur diaphysis. The data are expressed as the means ± SD, and *p < 0.05 represents significance. ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey–Kramer paired multiple comparison test (at 8 weeks) or Dunnett’s multiple comparison test vs. OVX controls (at 16 weeks) were used. At 16 weeks, significance (p < 0.05) of each parameter determined by t test against the corresponding 8-week midpoint value was marked by a.