ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Skeletal Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicImmunological mechanisms in degenerative musculoskeletal and metabolic bone diseasesView all articles
Influence of adrenoceptor blocker treatment on fracture healing in osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic bone
Provisionally accepted
Sandra Dieterich1
Christoph Kölbl1
Miriam Eva Angelica Tschaffon-Müller1Oliver Küppers1Dorothea Gebauer1
Melanie Rebecca Kuhn1,2Katarina Teresa Acker1
Anita Ignatius1
Melanie Haffner-Luntzer1*- 1Institut für Unfallchirurgie und Biomechanik, Universitaetsklinikum Ulm, Ulm, Germany
- 2Department of Orthopaedic Trauma, University Medical Center Ulm, Ulm, Germany
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Fracture healing is a highly dynamic process that involves inflammation, cell recruitment, angiogenesis, and subsequent bone formation and remodeling. Increasing evidence suggests a pivotal role of adrenergic signaling in musculoskeletal repair and bone-related diseases like osteoporosis. Furthermore, impaired fracture healing in osteoporotic female mice might be attributed to an overshooting immune response with increasing numbers of neutrophils found in the early fracture hematoma. Earlier studies showed that an unspecific blockade of the β-adrenoceptor with Propranolol reduces the number of neutrophils in the fracture hematoma in male mice, which might also help to alleviate the overshooting immune response in female osteoporotic mice. In this study, we hypothesized that adrenoceptor blocker treatment in the early inflammatory phase of fracture healing rescues the excessive immune response in osteoporotic female mice and thereby improves fracture healing. However, our results indicate that an early blockade of adrenergic receptors does not improve fracture healing in osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic mice. In contrast to earlier studies with male mice, beta blockade (Propranolol and Butoxamine) in female non-osteoporotic mice increased the number of neutrophils in the early fracture hematoma indicating an elevated immune response and a sex-dependent effect of adrenoceptor blocker treatment.
Keywords: adrenergic signaling, Adrenoceptor blocker treatment, Butoxamine, Fracture Healing, Inflammation, Phentolamine, Postmenopausal osteoporosis, Propranolol
Received: 17 Oct 2025; Accepted: 31 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dieterich, Kölbl, Tschaffon-Müller, Küppers, Gebauer, Kuhn, Acker, Ignatius and Haffner-Luntzer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Melanie Haffner-Luntzer
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