Effect of first treatment with aminobisphosphonates pamidronate and ibandronate on circulating lymphocyte subpopulations

Up to 60% of patients receiving their first infusion of the bisphosphonate pamidronate experience an acute-phase reaction. In this study, we used flow cytometry to determine the effects of pamidronate treatment on circulating lymphocyte subpopulations, and we investigated whether pamidronate and ibandronate treatment affect lymphocyte subpopulations differently. Twenty patients received a pamidronate infusion, 20 patients received intravenously injected ibandronate, and 10 controls received a clodronate infusion. Pamidronate treatment was followed by a significant increase in median body temperature at the 10-hour measurement and a significant decrease in counts of circulating lymphocytes, natural killer cells, T cells, and CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets. Ibandronate treatment did not affect median body temperature, and it was associated at the 10-hour measurement with maximum increases in total lymphocyte count, B cells, T cells, and CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets. Thus, there is a substantial difference in the hematologic response to initial treatments with pamidronate and ibandronate. Clodronate treatment did not induce changes in body temperature or significantly affect the number of circulating T cells and NK cells. The reduction in lymphocyte subsets after initial pamidronate therapy might be mediated by the release of tumor necrosis factor α, whose source in the acute-phase reaction could be T cells.