Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found a potential new treatment for osteonecrosis, or the death of bone tissue, in people who are treated with steroids for several common medical conditions. There are currently no treatment options for people with this debilitating disease. The research is published in the April 27 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Glucocorticoids are a class of steroids used to treat several common diseases, including asthma, ulcerative colitis, kidney diseases, and rheumatologic disorders. These steroids cause bone loss, and can eventually cause severe osteoporosis and fracture, as well as osteonecrosis. The Mount Sinai team, led by Mone Zaidi, MD, PhD, FRCP, Professor of Medicine and Physiology and Director of The Mount Sinai Bone Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, discovered that injecting the naturally-produced hormone adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in rabbits with osteonecrosis caused by treatment with glucocorticoids significantly reduced bone death in the hip.
"Osteonecrosis is a very painful condition that has the potential to affect hundreds of thousands of Americans who are treated with steroids, with no treatment option until now except hip replacement," said Dr. Zaidi. "Our research is the first to show the therapeutic benefit of ACTH in experimental osteonecrosis, providing the first treatment option for these patients."