Prevention of vascular calcification with bisphosphonates without affecting bone mineralization: a new challenge?

Arterial calcification has been found to coexist with bone loss. Bisphosphonates, used as standard therapy for osteoporosis, inhibit experimentally induced vascular calcification, offering perspectives for the treatment of vascular calcification in renal failure patients. However, Lomashvili et al. report that the doses of etidronate and pamidronate that are effective in attenuating aortic calcification also decrease bone formation and mineralization in uremic rats, limiting their therapeutic use as anticalcifying agents.