SMALL BONE-BUILDING FRAGMENTS OF PARATHYROID-HORMONE - NEW THERAPEUTIC AGENTS FOR OSTEOPOROSIS

The brittle, fracture-prone bones of an osteoporotic postmenopausal wo man are the products of an excessive uncompensated resorption of trabe cular bone by osteoclasts. Osteoporosis is currently treated with the osteoclast suppressors calcitonin, bisphosphonates, or oestrogen, whic h stop further bone resorption without stimulating new bone growth. He re, James Whitfield and Paul Morley review the growing evidence that s mall adenylate cyclase-stimulating fragments of the parathyroid hormon e are promising therapeutic agents for osteoporosis that potently stim ulate osteoblasts to make mechanically strong or supranormally strong bone.