Department of Orthopaedics, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China (mainland).
Department of Orthopaedics, The First People's Hospital of Anqing, Anqing, Anhui, China (mainland).
Med Sci Monit. 2020 Apr 28;26:e924554. doi: 10.12659/MSM.924554.
BACKGROUND Osteoporotic fractures are common in postmenopausal women and associated with complications. Numerous studies have demonstrated that icariin can be used to treat fractures and osteoporosis. Herein, we evaluated the efficacy of gavage-administered icariin to promote fracture healing in postmenopausal osteoporotic fracture (POF) rats. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this study, ovariectomy-induced POF rats were treated with 600 mg/kg icariin. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) was used to assess fracture healing; besides, serum APK, TRACP-5b, and E₂ expression levels were detected by commercial kits, and the uterine index was calculated. In addition, the expression of osteogenesis-related proteins (Runx 2 and COL1A2) in the callus was measured by western blot, whereas the expression of OPG/RANKL pathway proteins was measured by western blot and immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS Our data revealed that icariin promoted the expression level of Runx 2 and COL1A2 and suppressed the expression level of serum bone turn over biomarkers via the OPG/RANKL pathway. Besides, a more mature callus was observed in the POF rats receiving icariin than in the untreated POF rats, while serum E₂ and uterine index were unaffected by icariin treatment. CONCLUSIONS These results revealed that icariin could promote fracture healing in ovariectomized rats via OPG/RANKL signaling, and that serum E₂ and uterine index were not affected by icariin treatment.
骨质疏松性骨折在绝经后妇女中很常见，并伴有并发症。许多研究表明，淫羊藿苷可用于治疗骨折和骨质疏松症。在此，我们评估了灌胃给予淫羊藿苷促进绝经后骨质疏松性骨折（POF）大鼠骨折愈合的疗效。
在这项研究中，采用卵巢切除术诱导 POF 大鼠，并用 600mg/kg 淫羊藿苷治疗。采用微计算机断层扫描（micro-CT）评估骨折愈合；此外，通过商业试剂盒检测血清 ACPK、TRACP-5b 和 E₂表达水平，并计算子宫指数。此外，通过 Western blot 测量骨形成相关蛋白（Runx2 和 COL1A2）在骨痂中的表达，通过 Western blot 和免疫组织化学分析测量 OPG/RANKL 通路蛋白的表达。
我们的数据表明，淫羊藿苷通过 OPG/RANKL 通路促进 Runx2 和 COL1A2 的表达水平，并抑制血清骨转换生物标志物的表达水平。此外，与未治疗的 POF 大鼠相比，接受淫羊藿苷治疗的 POF 大鼠的骨痂更成熟，而血清 E₂和子宫指数不受淫羊藿苷治疗的影响。
这些结果表明，淫羊藿苷可以通过 OPG/RANKL 信号通路促进去卵巢大鼠的骨折愈合，并且血清 E₂和子宫指数不受淫羊藿苷治疗的影响。
