{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03214024835646457, 'fraction_numerical': 0.016070124178232285, 'mean_word_length': 4.854700854700854, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 3, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Dietary calcium affects neonatal bone development

Effects of dietary calcium (Ca) deficiency on skeletal integrity and endocrine parameters are well characterized in growing and mature mammals; however, little work has examined Ca nutrition during the neonatal period. In this study, we examined the effects of neonatal Ca nutrition on bone integrity, endocrine parameters, and in vivo mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) activity. Neonatal pigs (24 ± 6h post‐partum) were pair‐fed either a Ca adequate or a 30% Ca deficient liquid formula diet for 18 days. There were no differences in growth rate or feed conversion efficiency based on dietary Ca level and all pigs grew at a rate similar to sow‐reared pigs. As anticipated, dietary Ca deficiency reduced (P < 0.05) both BMD and bone flexural strength. The anticipated increase (P < 0.05) in plasma PTH levels in pigs fed the Ca deficeint diet was not evident until the end of the study. Surprisingly, dietary Ca level did not affect plasma Ca or 1,25(OH) 2 vitamin D concentrations throughout the study. Calcium deficiency reduced (P < 0.05) the in vivo proliferation of MSC isolated from bone marrow by approximately 50%. These results indicate that neonatal Ca nutrition is crucial for bone integrity and suggest that early life Ca restriction may have long‐term effects on bone integrity via its effects on MSC activity.