The Effect of Melatonin and Its Agonist on Bone Metabolism

Objectives : To assess the effects of melatonin and its agonist on bone tissue through a scoping review of the literature.  Materials and Methods: The keywords were searched on Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed. Title and abstracts were reviewed to exclude the duplicates and irrelevant articles. The full-text articles were then screened in accordance with the inclusion criteria.  Results: Of the 5,383 identified articles [PubMed=5,508, Web of Science=122, Scopus=53], only 3 studies qualified to be included in the scoping review based on the inclusion criteria. The first study assessed effects of the oral melatonin on bone integrity and mass in postmenopausal osteopenic women through dual X-ray absorptiometry, quantitative computed tomography (QCT), high-resolution peripheral QCT (HR-pQCT), determined calciotropic hormones and bone markers. The other two studies evaluated radiographic and clinical outcomes such as Perio test, Angulated Bleeding test, Pink Esthetic Score (PES), Gingival index (GI), Peri-implant sulcus depth (PD), Wound healing index (WHI), Linear measurements of bone loss around implant and Densitometric analysis of dental implants with the local application of melatonin. All studies showed an improved outcome parameters in comparison with the control group.  Conclusion: Based on the findings of the included studies, it was found that melatonin improved bone mineral density, increased marginal bone level and minimized root resorption aiding in implant stability. The findings were suggestive that melatonin has osteoinductive properties and inhibitory effect on osteoclastic activity.