Objective:The aims of this study were to (1) evaluate the association of serum sclerostin with bone mineral density (BMD) and markers of bone metabolism in postmenopausal Chinese women and (2) observe the relationships of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the sclerostin (SOST) gene with serum sclerostin,BMD,and markers of bone metabolism.Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 703 postmenopausal Chinese women.Ten tagging SNPs (rs1234612,rs1513670,rs1634330,rs1708635,rs2023794,rs7220711,rs74252774,rs851057,rs851058,and rs865429) of the SOSTgene were genotyped.Serum sclerostin and markers of bone metabolismwere measured,including serum intact parathyroid hormone,25- hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D],procollagen type l N-terminal propeptide (PINP),and p-CrossLaps of type I collagen containing cross-linked C-telopeptide (p-CTX).The BMD of the lumbar spine and proximal femur were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.Results: Serum sclerostin was positively correlated with BMD at lumbar spine,femoral neck,total hip and with serum 25(OH)D (all P<0.01),but negatively correlated with p-CTX (P<0.01).The significant relationships between serum sclerostin and BMD and with serum p-CTX persisted even after adjustments for age,BMI and serum 25(OH)D (all P<0.01).However,there was no correlation between serum sclerostin and age or serum PINP.We failed to identify a significant association between the SNP,haplotypes of SOST and BMD,serum sclerostin,.Conclusion: Our results suggested that serum sclerostin was positively correlated with the BMD at lumbar spine,femoral neck,total hip and with serum 25(OH)D but was negatively correlated with serum β-CTX.Genetic polymorphisms of SOST may not be a major contributor to variations in the serum sclerostin or BMD in postmenopausal Chinese women.