Effect of Successful Parathyroidectomy on Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells and Parameters of Red Blood Cells in Patients with Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Elevated levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH) in primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism inhibit hematopoiesis at the level of hematopoietic progenitor cells, mainly the burst forming units-erythroid (BFUe). Removal of parathyroid adenomas is associated with an increase in hematopoietic progenitor cells. In contrast, a certain amount of PTH and calcium is needed to correct anemia after bleeding demonstrating that PTH has also a stimulatory effect on the bone marrow.

We examined the effect of parathyroidectomy (PTX) in 10 patients with histologically proven primary hyperparathyroidism on hematopoietic progenitor cells and several parameters of red blood cells before and at 5, 30 and 90 days after PTX. After successful surgery serum levels of iPTH (p < 0.01) and calcium (p < 0.001) decreased significantly. Subsequently a steady increase in all hematopoietic progenitor cell classes was observed reaching significance for BFUe only (p < 0.05). Red blood cells and hemoglobin reached nearly pretreatment values within 90 days after PTX after they had decreased due to surgery associated blood loss. 8 patients undergoing hemithyroidectomy without PTX showed a similar decrease in red blood cells and hemoglobin followed by a rise after the operation. The changes of these parameters did not differ significantly from the patients with pHPT. In contrast to the patients with pHPT, no changes in hematopoietic progenitor cells during the 90 days were observed. The presented data provide further evidence that increased PTH concentrations might inhibit hematopoiesis in humans in vivo. The inhibition can be reversed following PTX by normalisation of PTH concentrations.

Key words

Primary Hyperparathyroidism - Parathyroidectomy - Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells