Serum sclerostin levels decline in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis following treatment with intermittent parathyroid hormone

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

This study was carried out in order to evaluate the effect of 18-month treatment with PTH (1-34) or PTH (1-84) on serum sclerostin levels in humans.

Who Took Part

The study group was 10 women.

The age groups tagged for this paper are older adults, women only.

The researchers investigated 10 women with severe osteoporosis, previously treated with alendronate and 20 untreated osteoporotic women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and open-label study.

Because people in this Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Everyone knew when Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

Fasting blood samples were collected at baseline and at 2, 4, and 24 h after hormone administration.

The same protocol was followed at month 1, 6, 12, 18.

Serum sclerostin levels were measured at each time point by a sandwich-type enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Alendronate, Bone Density, Bone Density Conservation Agents, Bone Morphogenetic Proteins, Case-Control Studies and Genetic Markers.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) in 10 women.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2012 (Journal of endocrinological investigation), a journal based in Italy.

More context: the Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) compound page, all human trials.