Abstract Background: Osteoporosis, as well as osteoporosis caused by chemotherapy, is regarded as a serious medical condition that lowers the quality of life, has a high prevalence of mortality and morbidity, and is expensive to treat. Simvastatin (SIM) is an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor that works through the same mevalonate route as bisphosphonate medications containing nitrogen to promote bone growth. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the protective effects of SIM on cyclophosphamide (CPA)-induced osteoporosis in rats. Materials and Methods: In total, 42 healthy female albino rats aged 6 months old were randomly divided into six study groups ( n = 7 rats per group): Group 1 (control) received 1 mL 0.9% NaCl orally for 6 weeks, Group 2 administered CPA (4.5 mg/kg daily) orally for 15 days, Group 3 administered alendronate (1 mg/kg daily) orally for 6 weeks plus CPA, Group 4 administered SIM (20 mg/kg daily) orally for 6 weeks plus CPA, Group 5 administered a combination of alendronate plus SIM in addition to CPA, and Group 6 administered SIM alone orally for 6 weeks. Finally, serum alkaline phosphatase and type I collagen cross-linked c-telopeptide levels were evaluated in addition to histological analysis of the right tibia. Results: SIM significantly improved the bone deleterious effects of CPA when compared to the CPA group. Interestingly, the alendronate plus SIM combination showed an additional improvement in the tested clinical biomarkers versus SIM monotherapy. Conclusion: Our study findings may ensure the bone-protective effect of SIM as monotherapy or in combination with alendronate.
Dawood et al. (Thu,) studied this question.