Freeze-Dried Watermelon Supplementation Has Modest Effects on Bone and Lipid Parameters of Ovariectomized Mice

Edralin A. Lucas, Maryam Yuhas, Kayla C. White, Penelope Perkins‐Veazie, Maureen Beebe, Sandra Peterson, Mark E. Payton, Brenda J. Smith
In: Preventive Nutrition and Food Science · 2020 · vol. 25(1) , pp. 41–49 · doi:10.3746/pnf.2020.25.1.41 · PMID:32292754 · W3016691051
article OA: green CC0
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of two doses of freeze-dried watermelon (WM) on bone and lipid parameters in ovariectomized (OVX) mice, a model of post-menopausal osteoporosis. Three-month-old C57BL/6 female mice (n=46) were sham-operated (SHAM) or OVX and randomly assigned to the control or WM diets for 12 weeks: SHAM-control, OVX-control, OVX+1%, or 10% (wt/wt) freeze-dried WM. All diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous, and had the same calcium and phosphorus concentrations. Freeze-dried WM supplementation was not able to prevent the decrease in whole body, tibial, and lumbar bone mineral density due to estrogen deficiency. Micro-computed tomography analyses showed that WM was also not able to modulate changes in tibial trabecular and cortical bone microarchitecture due to ovariectomy. However, the lumbar trabecular micro-architecture analyses revealed that the WM-10% group had a similar connectivity density, trabecular number, trabecular separation, and structure model index as the SHAM group. Supplementation with 10% WM reduced plasma cholesterol and total liver lipids to the level of the SHAM group but was still similar to that of the OVX-control group. Supplementation with 10% WM increased liver catalase (CAT) mRNA levels but had no effects on mRNA levels of glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6. There were no differences in plasma activity of the antioxidant enzymes GPX and CAT between all treatment groups. Our findings demonstrate some positive effects of watermelon for modulating lipids and attenuating lumbar vertebral bone loss arising from ovarian hormone deficiency.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Citation neighborhood (no data yet)

We don't have any in-corpus citations linked to this paper yet. The paper's references may be in our DB but unresolved to ``paper_id`` (resolution happens at ingest when the cited DOI matches a row we already have). Run the cross-source citation reconcile pass to retry.

References (38)

SciLite annotations

chemicals 82
lipid lipid calcium phosphorus mineral estrogen cholesterol estrogen estrogen calcium oxygen estrogen pamidronate mineral vitamin c amyloid-beta potassium terpene glycoside flavonoids carotenoid triterpenoid lycopene arginine citrulline lipid lipid lipid calcium phosphorus lycopene citrulline arginine calcium phosphorus water lipid ketamine xylazine ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid nitrogen mineral agarose lipid monounsaturated fatty acid cholesterol triglyceride chloroform methanol aluminium lipid lipid cholesterol triglyceride polyunsaturated fatty acid lipid lipid lipid lycopene vitamin c amyloid-beta +22 more
organisms 55
mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. noordeloos 2009062 vaccinium corymbosum noordeloos 2009062 rodents watermelon mus sp. rodents rodents mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. multicellular animals mus sp. multicellular animals rodents mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. multicellular animals multicellular animals mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. noordeloos 2009062 mus sp. noordeloos 2009062 mus sp. mus sp. microbiota microbiota bacteria stick insect bacteria stick insect mus sp. mus sp. mus sp. rodents humans mus sp. rodents human humans mus sp.

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
scilite
last seen: 2026-05-18T04:26:01.642840+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK