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Parathyroid hormone stimulates fracture healing and strengthens bones
DOI:10.1038/bonekey.2013.158
Ellegaard et al. employed a rat fracture model to investigate whether treatment with a parathyroid hormone fragment, PTH(1-34), acted in synergy with mechanical loading to improve fracture healing.
Female rats aged 25 weeks were ovariectomized, and half were injected with botulinum toxin A to paralyse the leg muscles on the right side while the other half received saline as control. All animals were then subjected to a right tibial closed midshaft fracture five days later and were injected with human PTH(1-34) at a dose of 20 μg per day, or control, for eight weeks.
Animals with leg muscle paralysis showed significantly reduced callus area and the callus had reduced bone mineral density and bone mineral content. Treatment with PTH(1-34) had a beneficial effect on the bone volume of the callus in both loaded and unloaded animals, as well as bone strength in the left tibia. The force needed to fracture the intact tibia in all animals increased by an average of 63%.
Editor’s comment: Human PTH(1-34) can therefore stimulate fracture healing and has a positive effect on bone formation in non-fractured bones. The only concern is that the dose of PTH(1-34) used here (and in rodent experiments generally) is very high and may not reflect human therapeutic doses.
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