The current study shows a clear association between the duration of binge alcohol exposure and the appearance of measurable bone damage. The effects of acute and chronic binge alcohol exposure on vertebral BMD and compressive strength reported in this study agree with previously published reports from our laboratory (Callaci et al., 2004, 2006), as well as with effects of chronic continuous alcohol exposure observed in previous investigations (Nishiquchi et al., 2000). As expected based on previous data, ibandronate administration prevented significant reductions in vertebral BMD and compressive strength in animals pretreated with a single ip injection of ibandronate prior to starting the binge alcohol treatment regimen. Ibandronate also increased cancellous BMD in control animals not receiving alcohol injections as previously demonstrated (Wezeman et al., 2007) through its inhibition of normal osteoclast-mediated bone resorption (Rogers, 2003). Multiple regression analysis performed to determine relative contributions of body weight versus treatment on measured parameters found no significant contributions of the change in body weight on BMD or compressive strength, confirming that the changes we observed in these parameters following chronic binge alcohol treatment
