Effects of Osthole on Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Using Ovariectomized Rats; Comparison to the Effects of Estradiol.

Abstract

Osthole (7-methoxy-8[3-methylpent 2-enyl]coumarin), a plant coumarin compound, is extracted from a Chinese herb Cnidium monnieri (L.) CUSS which has been used since ancient times in China as a tonic and aphrodisiac. It was reported that castrated mouse received subcutaneous injections of an alcoholic extract of Cnidium monnieri (L.) CUSS once a day for 21 d, the copulation period appeared, 1) this suggests that this alcoholic extract (including osthole) may have the estrogen-related activities. It has also been found that both total coumarins and osthole, extracted from Cnidium monnieri (L.) CUSS, have the positive effects on bone loss due to ovariectomy in rats, 2,3) where cancellous bone histomorphometric variables in tibiae were preserved. However, even in animal experiments, little is known about the effects of osthole on other skeletal sites or other indices of bone metabolism such as biochemical markers of bone turnover, bone mechanical testing, etc.Ovariectomy induced bone loss in rats and postmenopausal bone loss in humans share many similar characteristics, and similar skeletal response to therapy with 17b-estradiol. 4,5) These similarities are strong evidence that the ovariectomized (OVX) rat bone loss model is suitable for studying the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal bone loss. Furthermore, the femoral neck of OVX rats, is a more clinically relevant sample site than other skeletal sites (i.e., proximal tibia) for preclinical testing of new therapeutic agents for the prevention and treatment of osteopenia. [6][7][8] The purpose of this study was to examine whether osthole has positive effects on bone loss due to OVX using the femoral neck of OVX rats; and, if so, whether osthole functions at the tissue level in a manner similar to 17b-estradiol. MATERIALS AND METHODSExperimental Protocols Twenty-four 3-month-old virgin female Wistar rats (220Ϯ12 g, Charles River Inc. Tokyo, Japan) were used for the experiment. The animals were kept for 5 d before the onset of the experiment to acclimatize to our laboratory conditions (the room temperature was 25°C with a 12 h/12 h light/dark cycle), then 18 rats were OVX and 6 rats were sham-operated under anesthesia with intraperitoneal (IP) injection of sodium pentobarbital at a dose of 30 mg/kg body weight. After operation, rats were kept in separate cages and fed standard diet before being sacrificed. To prevent hyperphagia associated with ovariectomy, the OVX rats were pair-fed to the mean intake of those in the sham group.9) All rats were allowed free access to drinking ion-exchanged distilled water for the duration of the whole experiment.All rats were untreated for 2 weeks after surgery and divided into four groups (6 rats per group). The first group was sham-operated upon and received solvent vehicle (97% corn oil and 3% ethanol, 1.0 ml/kg). Groups 2 to 4 were OVX. Group 2 received solvent vehicle (same the sham rats), Group 3 received 17b-estradiol (Sigma Chemical Company, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.) 30 mg/kg and Group 4 received osthole (Wako Pure Chem...

The selective estrogen receptor modulator SCH 57068 prevents bone loss, reduces serum cholesterol and blocks estrogen-induced uterine hypertrophy in ovariectomized rats

“…OVX also causes a reduction in BMD, bending strength of the femur and compressive strength of the vertebral bodies. Our results concerning biochemical markers of bone turnover, bone strength and histomorphometry in the OVX rats are therefore consistent with published studies of this model [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Administration of SCH 57068 to the OVX-treated animals in our experiment appeared to markedly reduce the increase in overall bone turnover induced by OVX.…”

“…The OVX rat model mimics changes in bone metabolism observed in human postmenopausal osteoporosis. Biochemical markers of bone resorption and formation reflecting bone turnover are elevated after OVX and return to low levels after estrogen repletion or after treatment with antiresorptive agents [23][24][25][26]. OVX also causes a reduction in BMD, bending strength of the femur and compressive strength of the vertebral bodies.…”

Antiviral and cytotoxic evaluation of coumarins fromPrangos ferulacea

“…Osthole has been isolated from Prangos spp. (Abyshev & Denisenko, 1970;Kuznetsova et al, 1979b;Sajjadi et al, 2009) and has exerted many pharmacological effects like blood triglyceride and cholesterol lowering effects via suppression of HMG-CoA reductase gene expression (Ogawa et al, 2007), antispasmodic (Sadraei et al, 2012(Sadraei et al, , 2013, and anti-osteoporosis (Li et al, 2002).…”

Osthole-Mediated Cell Differentiation through Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2/p38 and Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 1/2 Pathway in Human Osteoblast Cells

“…Previous studies have shown that osthole possesses antiproliferation, vasorelaxation, antihepatitis, anti-inflammatory, antiaggregatory, and antiallergic effects (Ko et al, 1992;Huang et al, 1996;Liu et al, 1998;Matsuda et al, 2002;Yang et al, 2003). Osthole has been shown to exhibit estrogen-like effects, preventing postmenopausal osteoporosis in ovariectomized rats (Li et al, 2002). It also has been reported to stimulate cell proliferation of osteoblast-like cells (Meng et al, 2004).…”