Tacrolimus treatment increases bone formation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Kwi Young Kang, Ji Hyeon Ju, Yeong Wook Song, Dae Hyun Yoo, Ho Youn Kim, Sung Hwan Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tacrolimus is a calcineurin inhibitor, and it is used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It works by inhibiting nuclear factor of activated T cells and inducting immunosuppression. This study aims to evaluate the influence of tacrolimus on the bone metabolism of patients with RA. Twenty-eight RA patients in three centers received tacrolimus 3 mg once daily for 24 weeks. Blood samples for evaluating bone metabolism and cytokines were collected at Weeks 0 and 24. We measured the serum C-telopeptide of type I collagen (sCTx-I), osteocalcin and inflammatory cytokines. We analyzed the data using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman's correlation. IL-2 and IL-6 were significantly decreased after the administration of tacrolimus (p = 0.027 and p = 0.024). There was no significant difference in the serum level of sCTx-I before and after treatment. The level of serum osteocalcin at Week 24 was significantly increased compared to the level at Week 0 (p = 0.002). The increase of osteocalcin was correlated with the reductions of IL-2 and IFN-γ (r = 0.405, p = 0.033 and r = 0.380, p = 0.046, respectively). Tacrolimus treatment increased bone formation markers in RA patients. This suggests that tacrolimus may play a role to inhibit bone erosion by increasing bone formation as well as improving the clinical symptoms of RA.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2159-2163
Number of pages5
JournalRheumatology International
Volume33
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2013

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgments This study was supported by a grant of the Korea Healthcare technology R&D project, Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, Republic of Korea (A084794).

Keywords

  • Calcineurin
  • NFAT
  • Osteoblast
  • Osteocalcin
  • Tacrolimus

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