[Effect of eel calcitonin derivative (elcatonin) in osteoporosis]

Calcitonin has been considered to be useful in the treatment of osteoporosis due to its remarkable suppressive action on bone resorption as well as its putative stimulative effect on bone formation. However, its usefullness, especially the effect for decreasing the loss of bone mass in osteoporosis has not been proved substantially. We have studied this point using eel calcitonin derivative, elcatonin , in relatively low doses with and without calcium supplement. Bone mass was evaluated by microdensitometry of the roentgenograms of the second metacarpal bone. One hundred and thirty cases of postmenopausal and senile osteoporotics were divided into the following four groups and studied for six months: A) calcium and elcatonin treated group, B) calcium treated group, C) elcatonin treated group, D) control group. Elcatonin was administered intramuscularly 10 units once a week, and calcium was given 700 mg for every day. The results of metacarpal densitometry revealed the signs of significant increase of the bone mass in the calcium and elcatonin treated (A) group compared with the control (D) group, while the changes in the other groups (B and C) were not significant. It was shown that elcatonin had the significant analgesic effect for the back pain in the patients. Serum iPTH was not increased and the antibody for elcatonin was not detected in elcatonin treated patients. Although the study period is rather short, necessitating further studies, at present, our study suggests that the use of calcitonin with calcium supplements had the place in the treatment of osteoporosis.