Actions of osteoporosis treatments on bone histomorphometric remodeling: a two-fold principal component analysis

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Teriparatide in the context of osteoporosis and bone density.

The difference between PFC and PRC was computed to determine the balance between formation and resorption.

Why It Was Studied

This was the first study to apply principal component analysis method to bone histomorphometric parameters.

The results corroborated teriparatide's distinct, yet different, mechanisms of action, which stimulate both bone formation and resorption.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, women only.

Included in this analysis were postmenopausal women with osteoporosis who were treated with either teriparatide or alendronate and who completed transiliac bone biopsy at either 6 or 18 months in the randomized, double-blind Forteo Alendronate Comparator Trial.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and double-blind study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Teriparatide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Teriparatide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Eighteen histomorphometric parameters were grouped into formation and resorption categories.

The first principal component of each category was estimated through the PCA.

The summation of principal formation component (PFC) and principal resorption component (PRC) was calculated to represent the overall level of bone turnover.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Alendronate, Bone Density Conservation Agents, Bone Remodeling, Bone Resorption, Models, Biological, Osteogenesis and Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Teriparatide in people with osteoporosis and bone density.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 3 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2013 (Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA), a journal based in England.

More context: the Teriparatide compound page, Osteoporosis and bone density research.