Endocrine Abstracts

Statins are cholesterol-lowering drugs decreasing bone resorption by inhibition of the farnesyl diphosphate synthase step in the mevalonic acid pathway and therefore are believed to have beneficial effects on bone status. Objective is to examine the relationship between lipid status and duration of statin therapy on the bone metabolism in dyslipidemic patients. A hundred and sixty subjects were divided into five groups depending on duration of statin therapy: (controls 0 years); (0.1–1.5 years); (2–5 years); (6–10 years); (11–30 years). ELISA method was performed on fasting serums using bone formation markers: osteoprotegerin (pmol/l) and osteocalcin (ng/ml) and bone resorption markers: s RANKL (pmol/l) and CrossLaps (ng/ml). For each bone marker and bone densitometry parametar, differences between statin groups were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. Scheffe post hoc was used to identify specific differences between groups. Bone markers showed significant variation by duration of statin therapy (F(16,268)=2.49; P<0.01). The trend showed increase of bone formation markers and decrese of bone resorption markers with increasing duration of statin therapy. Bone mineral density (BMD g/cm²) did not show significant changes due to statin therapy (F(16,260)=0.98; P=0.47). Clearly, statin therapy influences bone metabolism, which is observed by dynamics of bone markers changes.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.