Abstract
Purpose: To study the anti-osteoporotic effect of Shengu'an in rats, and elucidate the mechanism of action involved.Methods: Forty healthy female SPF mice were randomly divided into control group, saline-treated group, TGFβRⅡ receptor inhibitor group, and shengu'an group. The expressions of type Ⅱ collagen (Co1-II) and platelet endothelial cell adhesion factor (CD-31) were determined. The expressions of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), p-smad2/3, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and osteoblast specific transcription factor (osterix) were assayed by western blotting.Results: The expression of Co1-II in the vertebral body was significantly lower in model mice than in control mice, but was significantly higher in shengu'an mice when compared with model mice (p < 0.05). In shengu'an mice, CoI-I was markedly upregulated, relative to model mice, and the expressions of CD31 in TGFβRⅡreceptor inhibitor group and shengu'an group were lower than in model group (p < 0.05). There were significantly lower expressions of TGF-β1 and p-smad2/3 in the vertebral body of shengu'an group than in model mice, but osterix was upregulated relative to model mice (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Shengu'an exerts anti-osteoporotic effect by downregulating TGFβ/smad signal pathway. There is thus a potential for its clinical application in the management of osteoporosis.
 Keywords: Shengu'an, TGFβ1-Smad2/3 signal, Bone cartilage metabolism, Osteoporosis
Highlights
Vertebral osteoporosis, an osteopathy characterized by low bone mass and destruction of bone tissue microstructure, is the main manifestation in chronic spinal degeneration [1]
The expression level of Co1-II was comparable between TGFβRII receptor inhibitor and model groups (p > 0.05)
The TGFβ1/bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway is similar to balance in kidney yin and yang in traditional Chinese medicine, indicating that kidney tonifying Chinese medicine for improving bone metabolism may be based on the TGFβ1/smad pathway, and so may be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of vertebral osteoporosis [16]
Summary
An osteopathy characterized by low bone mass and destruction of bone tissue microstructure, is the main manifestation in chronic spinal degeneration [1]. The L4/5 segment tissues of mice in each group were decalcified, dehydrated, embedded and sectioned to slices of thickness 4μm which were soaked in water at 40 oC. The sections were oven-dried, dewaxed in xylene, dehydrated with gradient alcohol, and put into EDTA antigen repairing solution at 90 oC This was followed with washing in distilled water and immersion in 3 % H2O2. The membrane was incubated with primary antibodies for p-smad2/3, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and osteoblast specific transcription factors (osterix) This was followed with incubation with secondary antibody at room temperature. The data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 (IBM, USA)
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