Understand the source comparison
Pulse versus plateau: the same hormone can build or destroy bone
What makes PTH biology fascinating is that the effect flips depending on how the hormone is delivered. A brief once-daily spike of PTH(1–34) tips the balance toward osteoblasts and net bone formation. Chronically high PTH — as in an overactive parathyroid glan
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This page preserves a source comparison for education. It does not add a rating, recommendation or clinical judgment.
- What makes PTH biology fascinating is that the effect flips depending on how the hormone is delivered. A brief once-daily spike of PTH(1–34) tips the balance toward osteoblasts and net bone formation. Chronically high PTH — as in an overactive parathyroid gland — does the reverse, activating osteoclasts and stripping bone. So teriparatide is anabolic only because it is given as a short daily pulse; get the exposure pattern wrong and the same molecule becomes catabolic. This is a textbook example of why timing and pharmacokinetics, not just the peptide sequence, determine what a hormone does.