Four Compounds Effective At Treating Disease.(vitamin E, growth hormone, tissue selective estrogen, and alendronate effective in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis)

2001 JUL 26 - (NewsRx Network) -- New research has demonstrated the effects of four different compounds - vitamin E, growth hormone (GH), tissue selective estrogen, and alendronate - in treating and preventing osteoporosis.

The four new studies were presented in a press conference at ENDO 2001, the 83rd annual meeting of The Endocrine Society, in Denver, Colorado, June 20-23, 2001. Dr. Peter Gillberg, a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, presented a two-year study on the effects of GH treatment in men between the ages of 27 and 62 with idiopathic osteoporosis. Researchers gave one group of men GH every day, while a second group received GH every two weeks. The study also had a one-year follow-up period. After three years, the men in both groups experienced an increase in bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC).

"This is the first time that research has shown that long-term growth hormone treatments in men with idiopathic osteoporosis can result in increased bone mineral density and increased bone mineral content," said Gillberg.

Two separate studies presented at the press conference also demonstrated the effectiveness of weekly administrations of alendronate to treat bone loss in postmenopausal women. One study, which was presented by Dr. Henry Bone, an endocrinologist and investigator at the Michigan Bone and Mineral Clinic, presented findings from a two-year clinical trial that was conducted by researchers at Merck Research Labs and several U.S. institutions. The clinical trial that was designed to compare the efficacy of alendronate in three dosages and administration rates, 70 mg once weekly, 35 mg twice weekly, and 10 mg daily, on 1258 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, through measurements of bone mineral density.

"The results of our double-blind, multicenter study prove that once weekly administration of alendronate in a dosage of 70 mg is therapeutically equivalent to a once-daily dosage of 10 mg in women with postmenopausa. osteoporosis," said Bone. "The study also proves that the 70 mg dosage is well tolerated."

In another alendronate study, researchers at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center sought to discover effectiveness of longer-term, infrequent administration of alendronate on postmenopausal bone loss. According to Dr. Sunil Wimalawansa, the chief of endocrinology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center and the lead investigator on the study, when taken once daily, alendronate, an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug for osteoporosis, increased bone density and strength. However, adherence to this standard therapy is often poor due ...