Short-term Effects of Atorvastatin on Bone Turnover in Male Patients with Hypercholesterolemia

Endocrine Journal

Yasato KOMATSU¹  Takafumi MAJIMA²  Kazuwa NAKAO¹  Tadashi MATSUMURA³  Kiyoshi NINOMIYA³  Atsushi FUKAO⁴ 

[1] Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine;Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Rakuwakai Otowa Hospital;Department of General Medicine, Rakuwakai Otowa Hospital;Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rakuwakai Otowa Hospital

关键词: Atorvastatin;    Bone turnover;    Osteoporosis;    Hypercholesterolemia;   

DOI  :  10.1507/endocrj.K06-127

学科分类：内分泌与代谢学

来源: Japan Endocrine Society

【 摘 要 】

References(27)Cited-By(24)No consensus has been reached on whether the 3-hydroxy 3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, known as statins, have beneficial effects on bone health. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin on bone metabolism by means of measuring bone turnover markers in male patients with hypercholesterolemia both at diagnosis and prospectively after 3 months of treatment. Twenty-two Japanese male patients (mean age 62.36 ± 10.1 years) with untreated hypercholesterolaemeia were selected for this study. After 3-months treatment of atorvastatin, total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol significantly decreased as expected (p<0.001 for both parameters). Bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) did not change significantly (p = 0.444). However, serum N-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (NTx) significantly decreased by –19.86 ± 26.4% (p = 0.020). In addition, ΔNTx during the course of this study was negatively correlated with NTx at baseline (r = –0.645, p = 0.0008). Although there was a tendency of positive correlations of ΔNTx with Δtotal cholesterol, Δtriglycerides, and Δlow density lipoprotein cholesterol, and of negative correlations of ΔNTx and ΔBAP with Δhigh density lipoprotein cholesterol, none of them reached statistical significance. Our findings suggest that atorvastatin may have potentially beneficial effects on bone metabolism in patients with hypercholesterolemia mostly by reducing bone resorption rather than by stimulating bone formation. Further studies with more patients and longer duration are warranted to evaluate its effects, if any, on prevention of osteoporosis and subsequent fractures.

【 授权许可】

Unknown