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The functional mechanism of simvastatin in experimental osteoporosis

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Abstract

Osteoporosis is a systemic and metabolic bone disease. New drugs with good curative effect, fewer side effects, and high safety need to be developed urgently. Recently, simvastatin has been used to treat osteoporosis more frequently; however, its clinical effect and treatment mechanism are still unknown. With the use of animal models, the treatment effectiveness of simvastatin on experimental osteoporosis was investigated and the functional mechanism was preliminarily explored. The results show that simvastatin significantly increased the mechanical parameters such as maximum load, stiffness, and energy-absorbing capacity, and improved the microarchitecture. They indicated that the antiosteoporosis activity of simvastatin may be due to the promotion of proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts. Simvastatin was effective in treating experimental osteoporosis. This study provides necessary experimental evidence for the clinical application of simvastatin in osteoporosis treatment.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 81060361), the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province, China (grants 2012FA002, 2010ZC169, 2012HB043), the Department of Education, Yunnan province, China (grant ZD2012006), and the Natural Science Foundation of Kunming City, China (grants 10S090202, 2012-01-01-A-R-07-0006, 2014-05-06-A-R-07-0005).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kunming Research Center for Molecular Medicine, Kunming University, Kunming, 650214, People’s Republic of China

    Lifen Dai, Ming Xu, Dekai Yuan, Yuan Wang & Min Hu

  2. Department of Endocrinology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, 650500, People’s Republic of China

    Lifen Dai & Min Hu

  3. School of Pharmaceutical Science and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Pharmacology for Natural Products, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, 650500, People’s Republic of China

    Lifen Dai & Zhiqiang Shen

  4. Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Unit, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, 650032, People’s Republic of China

    Haiying Wu & Hongbin Zhao

  5. Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, People’s Republic of China

    Lanjie Xue

Authors
  1. Lifen Dai
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  2. Ming Xu
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  3. Haiying Wu
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  4. Lanjie Xue
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  5. Dekai Yuan
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  6. Yuan Wang
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  7. Zhiqiang Shen
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  8. Hongbin Zhao
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  9. Min Hu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hongbin Zhao or Min Hu.

Additional information

L. Dai, M. Xu, and H. Wu contributed equally to this work.

M. Hu is the senior corresponding author of this article.

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Dai, L., Xu, M., Wu, H. et al. The functional mechanism of simvastatin in experimental osteoporosis. J Bone Miner Metab 34, 23–32 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-014-0638-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-014-0638-y

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