Skeletal Effects of Thyroid Hormones

The importance of functional thyroid abnormalities can hardly be overstated as they affect over 5% of the population. Thyroid hormones exert a multitude of effects on the metabolism of both the developing and the adult skeleton. It is thus unsurprising that changes in thyroid function can have a variety of often severe skeletal consequences. In recent years, numerous advances were made in the understanding of this domain. These include for instance the mapping of different pathways mediating genomic and nongenomic actions of thyroid hormones in osteoblasts and osteoclasts, or the investigation of the direct role of thyrotropin in skeletal remodeling. New disease states such as RTHα were recently recognized, and the clinical significance of subclinical thyroid dysfunctions in bone pathology is also better understood. In this current paper, we review the influence of thyroid hormones and different forms of thyroid disorders on bone metabolism with a special focus on practical clinical considerations.