Statins for the Treatment of Osteoporosis

Olga Petryna, MD

Dec 01, 2016 10:36 am

Can statins be used to treat osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a major health problem worldwide. As a body of anti-resorptive agents for osteoporosis mounts, there is still a huge unmet need in promoting bone formation.

A growing body of publication points to potential benefit of statins in term of inducing bone proliferation, differentiation, protection of osteoblasts, and reducing osteoclastogenesis.

This particular meta-analysis was conducted to comprehensively evaluate the effects of all statins on the fracture rates, BMD, and biochemical markers of bone metabolism.

From initial 1436 articles selected researchers finally identified 33 studies meeting the inclusion criteria.

From 16 studies on risk of fracture, the risk of overall fracture was reduced by 19% with statin therapy; compared with the control (OR = 0.81; 95% CI 0.73–0.89; P < 0.0001; I2 = 87.5%).

The results of the meta-analysis of 8 studies indicated that statin therapy produced an improvement in BMD at the lumbar spine (SMD = 0.20; 95% CI 0.07–0.32; P = 0.002; I2 = 43%).

Analysis of another 6 studies indicated that statin therapy had no effect on the BMD at the femoral neck (SMD = 0.06; 95% CI −0.07–0.19; P = 0.35; I2 = 48%) but an improvement in BMD at the total hip (SMD = 0.18; 95% CI 0.00–0.36; P < 0.05; I2 = 62%) was observed in other study groups.

The study concluded that statins are effective in reducing the risk of fracture, improving the BMD at the lumbar spine and total hip and increasing the OC concentration.

Furthermore, statins believed to have a more significant effect in male osteoporosis patients than in female patients.

Springer link