Abstract
Liuweidihuang Wan (LW), initially a well-known formula for curing “wu chi wu ruan”, is commonly used nowadays for clinical treatment of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis (PO), but the identity of the effective substance(s) remains unclear. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of morroniside and loganin isolated from LW on the proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of MC3T3-E1 cells, as well as the possible mechanism of action. Morroniside and loganin had no effects on the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells, but both susbtances could improve the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and increase the contents of collagen type I and osteocalcin. Simultaneously, the mRNA expression of caspase-3, capase-9, RANKL was down-regulated and that of bcl-2 was up-regulated, which partially explains the anti-osteoporosis mechanism in MC3T3-E1 cells. In conclusion, morroniside and loganin may directly promote the differentiation and inhibit the apoptosis of MC3T3-E1 cells, and accordingly indirectly reduce bone resorption, which makes them promising natural drugs leads for treating PO in the near future.
Highlights
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used clinically in China and Asia for more than8,000 years
The results suggested that morroniside and loganin could promote differentiation and inhibit apoptosis of MC3T3-E1 cells, and could down-regulated the expression of Receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) mRNA, so that the role of osteolysis was inhibited and the function of bone was improved, which may partly explain the mechanism of the two constituents on osteoporosis
The results indicated that loganin could increase the production of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and collagen type and morroniside could increase the production of osteocalcin
Summary
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used clinically in China and Asia for more than8,000 years. Osteoporosis is a multifactorial bone disease characterized by reduction of bone mass, damage to the bone tissue microstructure, aggravation of osteopsathyrosis and increased risk of fractures [1]. It is one of the most common diseases in elderly patients and represents a major public health problem, as more than 50%. Its main clinical feature are fractures, which usually occur in the forearm, spine and hip, and each year more than 150 million people suffer from the fractures of hip, spine and wrist caused by osteoporosis. People with one or more vertebral fractures suffer from osteoporosis and the general aging of the population is bound to increase the incidence of osteoporotic fractures. Osteoporotic fractures mainly occur as a consequence of estrogen deficiency after menopause and an imbalance between bone resorption caused by osteoclasts and bone formation caused by osteoblasts, leading to a net bone loss in each remodeling cycle [9]
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