The Foundation offers a progesterone cream that has helped to maintain bone strength in post-menopausal women. The DHEA Connection Both estrogen and testosterone are made from adrenal steroid hormones. Bone cells have enzymes which convert these adrenal steroids into estrogen. Researchers have found that DHEA is significantly lower in patients with osteoporosis than those without the disease. DHEA is converted into a type of estrogen called estrone in bone cells through the action of the enzyme aromatase.
Estrone increases the activity of osteoblasts, the cells that build bones.
The ability of DHEA to stimulate bone-building cells through this pathway is dependent on a form of vitamin D called Vitamin D3. Cytokines, Free Radicals and Aging DHEA modulates bone density by affecting osteoclasts as well as osteoblasts. These free radicals then activate osteoclasts, the cells that absorb bone and make it porous. As people grow older, their levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines increase, which, in turn, increases the production of free radicals. A study in Nature clearly shows that TNF inhibits bone collagen and enhances the production of collagenase, the enzyme that breaks it down.