EFFECTS OF CALCITONIN ON BONE QUALITY AND OSTEOBLASTIC FUNCTION

Calcitonin is a naturally occurring calciotropic hormone which plays an important physiologic role in mineral and skeletal homeostasis. The salmon species of calcitonin (SCT) is currently being used therapeutically in pharmacologic doses for the treatment of skeletal conditions in which there is a component of excessive bone resorption, including osteoporosis, Paget's disease, malignant hypercalcemia, Sudeck's atrophy, familial hyperphosphatasemia, osteogenesis imperfecta, renal osteodystrophy, and painful bony metastases. A consideration of the effects of SCT on animal and human skeletal integrity and bone quality permits further insight into the spectrum of calcitonin effects. The studies reviewed herein have investigated the effects of calcitonin on parameters indicative of bone quality, including quantitative effects on bone mass, histomorphometric assessment of skeletal architecture, mechanical properties, ultrasound parameters, and fracture incidence. In addition, relevant data from in vivo and in vitro studies of the anabolic effects of calcitonin are also reviewed as an osteoblastic action of calcitonin may have clinical relevance.