Skeletal levels of bisphosphonate in the setting of chronic kidney disease are independent of remodeling rate and lower with fractionated dosing

Abstract Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) results in a dramatic increase in skeletal fracture risk. Bisphosphates (BP) are an effective treatment for reducing fracture risk but they are not recommended in advanced CKD. We have recently shown higher acute skeletal accumulation of fluorescently-tagged zoledronate (ZOL) in the setting of CKD but how this accumulation is retained/lost over time is unclear. Furthermore, it is unknown if alternative dosing approaches can modulate accumulation in the setting of CKD. Methods To address these two questions normal (NL) and Cy/+ (CKD) rats were divided into control groups (no dosing), a single dose of a fluorescent-tagged ZOL (FAM-ZOL), a single dose of non-labelled zoledronate (ZOL) or ten weekly doses of FAM-ZOL each at 1/10th the dose of the single dose group. Half of the CKD animals in each group were provided water with 3% calcium in drinking water (CKD + Ca) to suppress PTH and remodeling. At 30 or 35 weeks of age, serum, tibia, ulna, radius, vertebra, femora, and mandible were collected and subjected to assessment methods including biochemistry, dynamic histomorphometry and multi-spectral fluorescence levels (using IVIS SpectrumCT). Results FAM-ZOL did not significantly reduce bone remodeling in either NL or CKD animals while Ca supplementation in CKD produced remodeling levels comparable to NL. At five- and ten-weeks post-dosing, both CKD and CKD + Ca groups had higher levels of FAM-ZOL in most, but not all, skeletal sites compared to NL with no difference between the two CKD groups suggesting that the rate of remodeling did not affect skeletal retention of FAM-ZOL. Fractionating the FAM-ZOL into ten weekly doses led to 20–32% less (p  Conclusions The rate of bone turnover does not have significant effects on levels of FAM-ZOL accumulation/retention in animals with CKD. A lower dose/more frequent administration paradigm results in lower levels of accumulation/retention over time. These data provide information that could better inform the use of bisphosphonates in the setting of CKD in order to combat the dramatic increase in fracture risk.