LAUSR

Juvenile Paget disease (JPD1), an autosomal-recessive disorder, is characterized by extremely rapid bone turnover due to osteoprotegerin deficiency. Its extra-skeletal manifestations, such as hypertension and heart failure, suggest a pathogenesis with shared skeletal and cardiovascular system components. In spite of this, the effects of anti-hypertensive drugs on bone morphometry remain unknown. We administered an angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker, olmesartan (5 mg/kg/day) to 8-week-old male mice lacking the osteoprotegerin gene, with and without 1 μg/kg/min of angiotensin II infusion for 14 days. Olmesartan treatment decreased systolic blood pressure, and echocardiography showed increased left ventricular systolic contractility. Three-dimensional micro-computed tomography scans demonstrated that olmesartan treatment increased trabecular bone volume (sham, +176%; angiotensin II infusion, +335%), mineral density (sham, +150%; angiotensin II infusion, +313%), and trabecular number (sham, +407%; angiotensin II infusion, +622%) in the tibia. Olmesartan increased cortical mineral density (sham, +19%; angiotensin II infusion, +24%), decreased the cortical bone section area (sham, -16%; angiotensin II infusion, -18%), decreased thickness (sham, -18%; angiotensin II infusion, -31%), and decreased the lacunar area (sham, -41%; angiotensin II infusion, -27%) in the tibia. Similar trend was observed in the femur. Moreover, olmesartan decreased angiotensin II-induced increases in tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase concentrations in plasma, but it affected neither type I procollagen N-terminal propeptides, nor the receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand. Our data suggest that blockade of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor improves bone vulnerability, and helps to maintain the heart's structural integrity in osteoprotegerin-deficient mice.