Fructooligosaccharide Consumption Improves the Decreased Cortical Bone Following Gastrectomy in Rats

We examined the effects of fructooligosaccharide (FOS) consumption on gastrectomy-evoked osteopenia in rats. Forty-two 35-day-old male Sprague Dawley rats were equally divided into two groups and a sham operation group or a total gastrectomy group was performed. Four weeks after each surgery, 14 rats were killed in each group (BaseSH and BaseGX groups). Thereafter, the remaining rats were equally divided into two sub-groups; with or without 7.5% FOS (1.35 g/day)-feeding (SH, SH+FOS, GX and GX+FOS groups) for six weeks. Backscattered electron images of the tibial cross-sections were taken to calculate the cortical bone area (CBA). The CBA in BaseGX rats was markedly decreased. Thereafter, FOS-feeding significantly counteracted this reduction, but not to the level seen in SH rats. These results suggest that FOS consumption partially restored osteopenia in cortical bone following the gastrectomy