Simultaneous measurement of bone formation and bone resorption in rats by de use of urinary fluoride excretion. An application to human beings.

A previous methodology was developed in order to measure bone remodelling in rats by the retention of fluoride. This technique has some advantages in comparison to bone remodelling markers: bone formation and bone resorption can be measured simultaneously and it is a low cost technique. However, it has several disadvantages such as, anaesthesia, blood samples, multiple urinary samples collection and intravenous fluoride dose. Consequently that technique was not useful for bone remodelling measurement in human beings, because intravenous injection of fluoride is not advisable in humans. However, as fluoride pharmacokinetic has been exhaustively studied in humans and rats, a modification at the mentioned technique was done to avoid intravenous injection of fluoride and to overcome the mentioned disadvantages. The simplification of the previous method has several advantages such as: administration of an oral dose of fluoride, two urinary samples, the simultaneous measurement of both processes (BF: bone formation and BR: bone resorption) and a software to calculate the values. These advantages allow to apply this method to human beings conversely to the previously published that is exclusively to rats.