Basic and clinical aspects of parathyroid hyperplasia in chronic kidney disease

Marked parathyroid hyperplasia develops in patients with chronic kidney disease, especially those with long dialysis vintage. Although progression of hyperplasia is associated with downregulation of vitamin D receptor and calcium-sensing receptor, initial abnormality that triggers and maintains parathyroid cell proliferation, as well the critical abnormality for the progression of diffuse hyperplasia to nodular hyperplasia, still remains to be elucidated. It is quite important for the optimal management of renal osteodystrophy to recognize the development of nodular hyperplasia, because the cells in nodular hyperplasia are usually resistant to medical therapy and further treatment of such patients often leads to vascular calcification. For this purpose, size and blood supply of enlarged parathyroid glands have been used as good clinical markers. Furthermore, we have recently shown that the serum fibroblast growth factor 23 level can be used for predicting refractory hyperparathyroidism. Once nodular hyperplasia develops in any of the enlarged parathyroid glands, such patients need to be treated by parathyroid intervention including percutaneous ethanol injection therapy. In addition, as direct vitamin D injection therapy has been shown to induce regression of hyperplasia, it may become possible to reverse or normalize established nodular hyperplasia if we can develop new agents with such effects in the near future.