Biomedical Research

Objective: Corn Cervi Pantotrichum, a traditional Chinese medicine, has been used to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis for a long time, but the mechanism is not clear. This study aimed to examine in detail the effects of Corn Cervi Pantotrichum on the bone of postmenopausal osteoporosisrat model.

Materials and Methods: forty female rats were randomly divided into groups of: Sham operated (Sham), ovariectomized control, ovariectomized with Corn Cervi Pantotrichum and ovariectomized with ERT (Climen). The Corn Cervi Pantotrichum and ERT were administered through the route of oral gavage daily at the dose of 0.4 g.kg^-1 and 0.2 mg.kg^-1 respectively. Following 12 weeks of treatment, rats were anesthetized. The blood and the distal of left femur were for bone biomarker using Elisa. The right femur was measured for BMD (bone mineral density) and histopathological evaluation. The head of left femur were used for quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot.

Results: Compared to the OVX group, supplementation of Corn Cervi Pantotrichum could not only increase the BMD of femur, but also increase the expression of bone formation maker. Photomicrograph of femur showed that Corn Cervi Pantotrichum can restore the normal architecture. Both Elisa, the quantitative real-time PCR and the Western blot results showed that Corn Cervi Pantotrichum may upregulates BMP-2/Smad1, 5/Runx2 expression in OVX rats.

Conclusion: This confirmed that Corn Cervi Pantotrichum could be used for the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

Author(s): Wei Gong, Hongxin Zheng, Feng Li, Leiming Qu, Wei Liu
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