A new weapon in the battle against osteoporosis may be the humble aspirin. Researchers at the University of Southern California, School of Dentistry have found that aspirin appears to prevent and treat osteoporosis in two ways. It prevents the death of bone-forming stem cells and also prevents improper bone resorption.
Osteoporosis, which occurs when bone is lost too quickly or isn’t replaced quickly enough, affects 44 million Americans. Although both men and women suffer from the condition, 68 percent are women.
Women lose bone at the greatest rate during the first few years following menopause, so researchers studied mice whose ovaries had been removed, causing them to develop osteoporosis in much the same way as post-menopausal women.
When researchers injected the mice with aspirin, bone density was not affected. “When we gave a large amount of aspirin to the mouse by injection, it did not work,” said Associate Professor Songtao Shi, “but when we gave a low dose in the mice’s water for a long period of time, similar to a human dosage, the bone mineral density increased.”
The study creates the possibility of someday using aspirin to prevent both heart disease and osteoporosis.
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