Fig 1.
Sheep were acquired at day -150 to allow for early health screening and weighing. Sheep were transported to the exercise facility at day -14 for a 2-week acclimation period prior to the start of the study. The total study period was 165 days, and all sheep underwent a tuber coxae bone biopsy procedure at 84 days.
Table 1.
Juvenile sheep exercise protocol and estimated distance traveled using a circular exerciser for 24 weeks.
Table 2.
Initial and final body weights (BW) and heights of 40 juvenile sheep.
Table 3.
Frequency of sheep lameness scores by day and treatment group.
Table 4.
Treatment means and SD of bone mineral density (BMD) measured using computed tomography at various locations: Midpoint of the mandibular diastema, dorsal, palmar, lateral, medial cortices, whole slice at the midpoint of the right fused metacarpus (MC3+4), and average of the fourth lumbar vertebral body (L4).
Table 5.
Means and SD for the right fused metacarpus (MC3+4) including the internal and external diameters at the dorsopalmar (DP) and lateromedial (LM) locations, cortical widths (CW) at the dorsal, palmar, lateral, and medial cortex, bone length, cross-sectional area (CSA) and means and SD for the fourth lumbar vertebral body (L4) CSA.
Table 6.
Means and SD for flexural stress (N/mm2) and modulus of elasticity (GPa) reported for the right fused metacarpus (MC3+4).
Compressive stress and modulus of elasticity are reported for the fourth lumbar vertebra (L4).
Table 7.
Treatment means and SD of the bone healing measured as bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular separation (TbSp), trabecular thickness (TbTh), trabecular number (TbN), trabecular connectivity density (ConnD), and bone mineral density (BMD) of the tuber coxae (TC) biopsy site and whole TC cortical thickness (CtTh).
Table 8.
Treatment means and SD of the bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular separation (TbSp), trabecular thickness (TbTh), trabecular number (TbN), trabecular connectivity density (ConnD), and bone mineral density (BMD) of the tuber coxae (TC) bone biopsies.
Table 9.
Treatment means and SD of the bone volume fraction (BV/TV), cortical thickness (CtTh), trabecular separation (TbSp), trabecular thickness (TbTh), trabecular number (TbN), and bone mineral density (BMD) of the left metacarpal medial condyle (LMC) and third lumbar vertebra (L3).
Table 10.
Treatment means and SD of serum bone marker bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP), procollagen type I amino-terminal propeptide (PINP), receptor activator of nuclear factor NF-ĸB ligand (RANKL), tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase isoenzyme 5b (TRAP5b), and carboxy-telopeptide of type I collagen cross-links (CTX-I).
Table 11.
Treatment means and SD of the remodeling ratio (BALP/CTX-I index) and resorption ratio (CTX-I/TRAP5b index).
Fig 2.
Sulfated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content from the right proximal radius cartilage post-papain digestion (μg GAG/mg tissue).
No differences between treatments were found (p = 0.82). Abbreviations: Con, control treatment no drugs administered; T0, group treated once on day 0 with clodronate disodium (CLO); T84, group treated once on day 84 with CLO; T0+84 group treated on day 0 and 84 with CLO.