Cancellous bone formation response to simulated resistance training during disuse is blunted by concurrent alendronate treatment.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of simulated resistance training (SRT) exercise combined with alendronate (ALEN) in mitigating or preventing disuse-associated losses in cancellous bone microarchitecture and formation. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats (6 months old) were randomly assigned to either cage control (CC), hind limb unloading (HU), HU plus either ALEN (HU + ALEN), SRT (HU + SRT), or a combination of ALEN and SRT (HU + SRT/ALEN) for 28 days. HU + SRT and HU + SRT/ALEN rats were anesthetized and subjected to muscle contractions once every 3 days during HU (four sets of five repetitions, 1000 ms isometric + 1000 ms eccentric).