Statins may have a role in stimulating bone formation, say researchers from the University of Texas, US. Experiments in mice indicated that lovastatin and simvastatin were associated with almost a 50 per cent increase in new bone formation after five days of treatment. In addition, an increase in trabecular bone volume of between 39 and 94 per cent was observed in rats following administration of statins. The researchers comment that a preliminary retrospective study of 598 older women taking statins suggested that statin use was accompanied by a greater hip bone mineral density and a lower risk of hip fractures but that the sample size was too small to give a definitive answer. The authors conclude that statins may merit further investigation as potential anabolic agents for bone.
However, statins currently in use concentrate in the liver to maximise their cholesterol lowering capacity. Those that concentrate in bone or bone marrow would be needed for use in bone formation, they say (Science 1999;286:1946).