RESUMO
A study was carried out to determine the fat and cholesterol contents of several commercial pork cuts as function of sex. Fat and cholesterol content ranged from 2.7% and 57 mg/100 g in loin to 30.3% and 116 mg/100 g in dewlap. The higher the fat content the higher was the cholesterol content. Sex did not influence fat content and the fat/cholesterol ratio, but cholesterol content was higher in females than in males.
RESUMO
Osteocalcin (bone Gla protein) is a promising marker of bone turnover useful in the diagnosis and follow-up of high turnover osteoporosis. Conflicting results have been reported about its physiological variations according to sex, age, and menopause. Several, but not all, authors have found increased levels in males, with aging, and after menopause. We measured serum osteocalcin in 126 healthy subjects, 57 males and 69 females, aged between 45 and 88 years. Osteocalcin was higher (P less than 0.01) in males (6.24 +/- 0.36) than in females (4.32 +/- 0.34). This sexual difference was significant, too, in subjects younger and older than 60 years. Osteocalcin increased with age, linearly in males (P less than 0.05), and exponentially in females (P less than 0.05). Although there was a difference in age (P less than 0.05), no difference in osteocalcin levels between premenopausal women and women in their first two postmenopausal years was detected, while osteocalcin was significantly increased in women more than two years into menopause. We conclude that osteocalcin in healthy subjects is higher in males than in females and increases with age after 45 years in both sexes. Osteocalcin levels increase in women more than two years beyond menopause, but not only as an effect on aging.
