Bone maintains extracellular calcium levels through a system called bone remodeling. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is the major initiator of this system, which is secreted by the information through calcium sensing receptor in parathyroid cells. PTH modifies calcified bone morphology through a process of its bone action. Therefore, extremely hyperactivated parathyroid function seen in patients with chronic kidney disease has been considered to have a negative impact on the bone mechanical properties. While skeletal deformities and fragility fractures were common among dialysis patients up to the 1970s, after which methods for the treatment of hyperparathyroidism were developed, we now seldom encounter those cases with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism in Japan. In a three-dimensional morphometry of biopsied iliac bone samples obtained from dialysis patients, PTH level was inversely correlated with cortical bone thickness, however, this relationship disappeared among those with intact PTH < 1000 pg/mL. Higher PTH levels were associated with more complicated and irregular cancellous bone surface, but this change was not accompanied with decreased cancellous bone connectivity. These findings theoretically support the recent clinical study results that PTH levels no longer show a tight correlation with fracture risk in dialysis patients. Nevertheless, the use of calcium sensing receptor agonist is likely to be associated with reduced hip fracture risk in dialysis patients. Further study is needed to reveal its pharmacological mechanism on bone.
Keywords: Bone remodeling; Calcimimetic agent; Cancellous bone connectivity; Cortical bone thickness; Hip fracture.
© 2018 The Authors. Therapeutic Apheresis and Dialysis published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of International Society for Apheresis, Japanese Society for Apheresis, and Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy.