Tanshinol is a major water-soluble active component of . In this study, we aimed to investigate whether tanshinol has potential therapeutic effects against glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis and glucocorticoid-induced myopathy. Ninety-six female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to five groups: a control group, a model group, and three model groups treated with 25 or 50 mg/kg of tanshinol, or calcitriol. All model groups received prednisone acetate for 90 days to induce glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. Afterwards, all animals underwent a surgical procedure to induce bone defects at the right proximal tibia. Prednisone treatment was stopped after surgery, but tanshinol or calcitriol treatment was continued to the endpoint. At the experimental endpoint, compared to the model group, 25 mg/kg tanshinol could significantly reverse glucocorticoid-induced loss of bone mineral density by 12.5 %, while enhancing mechanical bone strength, causing a significant 11 % increase in trabecular number, and reducing trabecular separation by 28 %. In addition, tanshinol improved the bone microarchitecture and prevented glucocorticoid-induced bone loss by promoting bone formation and inhibiting bone resorption. Moreover, results of bone defect repair and muscle weight measurements revealed that tanshinol accelerated the bone fracture healing process and attenuated muscle atrophy caused by glucocorticoid. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis showed a 1-fold upregulation in mRNA levels of transforming growth factor beta and roughly 6-fold increases in vascular endothelial growth factor mRNA expression in calluses from the tanshinol groups. Tanshinol also preserved muscular ubiquitin mRNA levels from glucocorticoid-induced elevation. These findings demonstrate the potential benefits of tanshinol against glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis and glucocorticoid-induced myopathy, which warrants further investigation in future studies.

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Siraitia grosvenorii (Luo hanguo, LHG) is a unique edible and medicinal plant in China. Drying the LHG with a rapid, highly efficient method and keeping good quality are urgent problems. In this paper, the changes of Vitamin C (VC) content in LHG under microwave drying were studied. The effects of key drying parameters (microwave power, drying time and microwave intermittent ratio) on the quality of LHG have been investigated by orthogonal experiments to reduce the loss of VC in the process of microwave drying. The optimum drying parameters for drying LHG were microwave power of 80 W, drying time of 30 min and microwave intermittent ratio of 1: 1. The optimally treated LHG has 34.072 mg/100g of VC content. These results have indicated that the microwave-heating not only prolongs the storage duration of the LHG but also reduces the moisture content and VC content, while the natural yellow-green color of the LHG is not affected much.

Background Studies have shown that the decrease of osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) is an important mechanism of osteoporosis. The object of this study was to explore the role and mechanism of microRNA miR-425-5p in the differentiation of MSC. Methods The expression of miR-425-5p in MSC was detected by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Cell proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by CCK-8 colorimetry and flow cytometry. The expression of TNF were detected by ELISA. Results Our data show that MiR-425-5p could modulate TNF-induced cell apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. ANXA2 is also the target of miR-425-5p and ANXA2 was involved in TNF-induced MSC cell apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. In addition, MiR-425-5p enhanced osteoporosis in mice. Conclusion MiR-425-5p might serve as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of osteoporosis.

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