Modeling of bone formation and resorption mediated by parathyroid hormone: response to estrogen/PTH therapy

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Bone, a major reservoir of body calcium, is under the hormonal control of the parathyroid hormone (PTH). Several aspects of its growth, turnover, and mechanism, occur in the absence of gonadal hormones. Sex steroids such as estrogen, nonetheless, play an important role in bone physiology, and are extremely essential to maintain bone balance in adults. In order to provide a basis for understanding the underlying mechanisms of bone remodeling as it is mediated by PTH, we propose here a mathematical model of the process. The nonlinear system model is then utilized to study the temporal effect of PTH as well as the action of estrogen replacement therapy on bone turnover. Analysis of the model is done on the assumption, supported by reported clinical evidence, that the process is characterized by highly diversified dynamics, which warrants the use of singular perturbation arguments. The model is shown to exhibit limit cycle behavior, which can develop into chaotic dynamics for certain ranges of the system’s parametric values. Effects of estrogen and PTH administrations are then investigated by extending on the core model. Analysis of the model seems to indicate that the paradoxical observation that intermittent PTH administration causes net bone deposition while continuous administration causes net bone loss, and certain other reported phenomena may be attributed to the highly diversified dynamics which characterizes this nonlinear remodeling process.