Objectives:
The present study aims to explore the in vivo effective ingredients of XLGB, and to establish a method for evaluating the osteogenic and anti-resorption activity of XLGB-containing plasma in vitro.
Methods:
Nine-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were induced for postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) by bilateral ovariectomy and divided into four groups as follows: sham-operated group (Sham), ovariectomized (OVX) control group, OVX treated with Estradiol (E2) and OVX treated with XLGB (XLGB). Treatments were given orally for three months. Three-dimensional bone structure of the fourth lumber was scanned by Micro-CT and then analyzed. In addition, the effects of standardized XLGB-containing plasma were evaluated on MC3T3-E1 for the differentiation and mineralization of osteoblast cell. The osteoclast bone resorption assay of XLGB-containing plasma was also performed on RANKL-induced RAW 264.7 cellsusing a commercially available bone resorption kit.
Results:
Three-dimensional images of the 4th lumbar showed that the trabecular bone in Sham, E2 and XLGB group was obviously more than that in OVX group. Similarly, BMD in Sham, E2 and XLGB group was significantly higher than that in the OVX group (p<0.05). The in vitro bioassay results demonstrated that XLGB-containing plasma not only effectively promoted proliferation, differentiation and mineralization of osteoblast, but also significantly inhibited the progress of bone resorption of osteoclast.
Conclusion:
XLGB possessed potent anti-osteoporotic activity in OVX rats which could be an effective treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis. In our present study, the concept of standard TCM containing plasma was firstly proposed, and an in vitro bioassay platform for evaluating the osteogenic and anti-resorption activity of TCM containing plasma was also developed. It provided a novel plasma-pharmacology strategy to investigate the medical materials and their action mechanism among absorbed multiple components in herbal medicine.
Acknowledgement:
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81220108028) and the project of the Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2014A030306043).