Bisphosphonates: Pharmacology and Clinical Approach to Their Use in Equine Osteoarticular Diseases

Bisphosphonates (BPs) are drugs widely used in various bone diseases, mainly for their skeletal antiresorptive effect. Nowadays, they are also used to treat degenerative pathologies such as arthritis because of their particular anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Since the sixties, BPs with different characteristics and biological activity profiles have been studied, although most of the pharmacologic and clinical trials have been carried out in humans. By 2002, however, tiludronate was granted a marketing license in France for use in horses. The objective of this article is to review the literature available on BPs and apply this knowledge, either experimentally or clinically, to equine osteoarticular disease therapy.