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Lookup NU author(s): Gill Wheater, Dr Mohsen Elshahaly, Dr Stephen Tuck, Dr Harish Datta, Professor Jaap Van Laar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2018 Wheater et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data describing the effect of in vivo B cell depletion on general bone loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are limited. Given the pathogenetic role of B cells in RA, it is tempting to speculate that B cell depletion might have a beneficial effect on bone loss. We prospectively investigated the changes in bone mineral density (BMD), bone turnover, inflammation and disease activity before and after rituximab in 45 RA patients over a 12 month period, 36 patients of whom completed the study and were included in the analysis. There was no significant change in our primary endpoint; lumbar spine BMD after 12 months. However, we found a significant decrease in neck of femur (mean -0.017 g/cm2, 95% CI -0.030, -0.004 p = 0.011) and total femur BMD (mean -0.016 g/cm2, 95% CI -0.025, -0.007 p = 0.001). Additionally, there was a significant increase in procollagen type 1 amino-terminal propeptide (P1NP) and bone specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP); biomarkers of bone formation (median change from baseline to 12 months; P1NP 11.3 μg/L, 95% CI -1.1, 24.8 p = 0.025; BAP 2.5 μg/L, 95% CI 1.2, 3.6 p = 0.002), but no significant change in bone resorption or osteocyte markers. The fall in BMD occurred despite improvement in disease control. Post-menopausal women had the lowest mean lumbar spine, femoral and forearm BMD at baseline and after 12 months, additionally they had a higher level of bone turnover throughout the study. In conclusion, BMD was maintained at the lumbar spine and forearm, but fell at the femur sites. A high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was observed and these patients had lower BMD and evidence of higher bone turnover.
Author(s): Wheater G, Elshahaly M, Naraghi K, Tuck SP, Datta HK, van Laar JM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: PLoS ONE
Year: 2018
Volume: 13
Issue: 8
Online publication date: 06/08/2018
Acceptance date: 14/07/2018
Date deposited: 16/01/2019
ISSN (electronic): 1932-6203
Publisher: Public Library of Science
URL: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201527
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201527
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