MINI REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1648510
This article is part of the Research TopicFunctional Foods for Metabolic HealthView all 23 articles
Role of Lactoferrin in Osteopenia and Osteoporosis
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
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Osteopenia and osteoporosis (OP) are serious public health concerns that impose substantial health and economic burdens on the global population. Lactoferrin (Lf) is a natural iron-binding glycoprotein that exhibits numerous biological functions. This review summarized the role of circulating Lf and related biomarkers in bone health. Lf may protect against OP through various mechanisms, including the osteoprotegerin/receptor activator of nuclear factor κB ligand/receptor activator of nuclear factor κB, bone morphogenetic protein signaling pathway, liver-bone axis, insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling pathway, autophagy, and gut microbiota. Moreover, the peptides derived from Lf and Lf-based nanoformulations or biomaterials have potential for protection against OP. Overall, this review supports the potential application of Lf for OP.
Keywords: Lactoferrin, osteopenia, Osteoporosis, bone metabolism, mechanisms
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Gao, Li, Zhao, Zhou, Gu, Yang and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Huilin Yang, Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Qin Shi, Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
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