The actions of parathyroid hormone on bone: Relation to bone remodeling and turnover, calcium homeostasis, and metabolic bone disease

In early chronic renal failure, the state of the bones resembles that of type II primary hyperparathyroidism. Cortical bone becomes thinner and more porous, and there is increased extent of surface remodeling. These changes are followed in turn by osteomalacia and osteitis fibrosa, although sometimes these may be alternate rather than successive stages. Bone turnover is less than would be expected for the elevation of PTH level, probably because of 1,25 (OH)2D3 deficiency. The resorption velocity and lamellar bone appositional rates are depressed, but woven bone appositional rate may be increased, possibly because of hyperphosphatemia. Bone mass reflects the summation of three independent processes: loss of lamellar bone due to hyperparathyroidism (depending on the extent of insulation by osteoid); accumulation of partly mineralized osteoid because of osteomalacia; accumulation of woven bone because of osteitis fibrosa. Osteosclerosis may be growth-related metaphyseal, subchondral or diffuse axial, and periosteal neostosis may also occur. Some patients on hemodialysis lose bone because of planing rather than lacunar or dissecting resorption, combined with depression of both lamellar and woven bone formation. Hyperparathyroid bone disease tends to improve slowly after renal transplantation. Persistent hypocalcemia reflects a defect in the calcium homeostatic system and cannot be explained solely by the known stimuli to secondary hyperparathyroidism. The increment in plasma calcium in response to PTH infusion is subnormal, both in early chronic and in acute renal failure, probably because of 1,25(OH)2D3 deficiency. This is also the most likely explanation for the depressed level of blood-bone equilibrium. The activity of all three of the PTH responsive cell systems in bone is depressed in renal failure, probably because all three require 1,25(OH)2D3 in order to function normally. In pseudohypoparathyroidism, as in chronic renal failure, hypocalcemia results from a defect in the regulation of the blood-bone equilibrium. The bone-remodeling system shows all gradations of response, from slight depression of bone turnover to overt osteitis fibrosa, but bone turnover is never as low as in PTH deficiency. These differences may reflect the presence or absence of resistance to PTH of the osteoprogenitor cell as well as of the calcium homeostatic system, or may be due to varying degrees of 1,25(OH)2D3 deficiency, as in chronic renal failure. An increase in plasma calcium in response to PTH can occur either in the untreated state or after treatment with vitamin D because either the error-correcting or remodeling system remains responsive to PTH. Pseudohypoparathyroidism may be subdivided into three types, depending on whether the urinary cyclic-AMP response to PTH remains defective despite treatment with vitamin D, improves with treatment, or is normal before treatment. Only the former is associated with the genetic syndrome of Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy...