Effects of collagen‐rich Korean traditional foods on the bone metabolism in ovariectomized rats

Abstract

Postmenopausal women are particularly susceptible to osteoporosis when their production of estrogen declines. In this study, we investigated the effects of collagen‐rich Korean Foods on the bone metabolism in ovariectomized rats. Ten‐week old female Sprague‐Dawley rats were given ovariectomy or sham operation after one week of adaption. After two weeks of recovery periods, rats were given of every other day oral administration of ethanol extract of five different collagen‐rich Korean foods, Samgyetang(SGT), Eogeultang(EGT), Odolpyu(ODP), Jeonyak(JY) and Jokbal(JB) (250 mg/kg BW/day) for 8 weeks. We evaluated daily food intake, body weight gain, uterus and femur weights, serum ALT/AST levels, serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, creatine, and RANK levels. The serum phosphorus levels were increased in collagen‐rich food groups. And, the RANK level which represents the osteoclast activity showed significant decrease in ODP, JY and JB groups. Considering the significance of halting the activity of osteoclast in postmenopausal women, the frequent consumption of collagen‐rich Korean traditional foods could be desirable to prevent osteoporosis in aging people. This study results could be very meaningful because the actual food samples instead of individual functional component were used in this experiment. Further studies are needed to investigate in depth the various indexes in bone metabolism.