[Vascular Calcification - Pathological Mechanism and Clinical Application - . Bisphosphonates for vascular calcification]

In Japan, the number of diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease patients is increasing yearly. Vascular calcification is prevailing in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus and/or chronic kidney disease, and carries a poor prognosis. However, the effective treatment for suppressing the progression of vascular calcification has not been established. On the other hand, treatment of osteoporosis has advanced dramatically as the details of the mechanism become clearer. Bisphosphonates, which are inhibitors of bone resorption that are widely used to treat osteoporosis, also inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis, differentiation of macrophage to foam cell, differentiation of smooth muscle cells to osteoblast-like cells in certain stimuli during calcification processes of vessels. These findings extend the link between bone remodeling and vascular calcification, opening perspectives toward novel therapeutic strategies. We herein review recent findings about effectiveness of bisphosphonates for vascular calcification with our data. Here we will review recent advances in the researches of treatment of vascular calcification and present our findings that the bisphosphonate is useful in prevention of vascular calcification.