The Role of Tocotrienol in Preventing Male Osteoporosis—A Review of Current Evidence

Abstract

Male osteoporosis is a significant but undetermined healthcare problem. Men suffer from a higher mortality rate post-fracture than women and they are marginalized in osteoporosis treatment. The current prophylactic agents for osteoporosis are limited. Functional food components such as tocotrienol may be an alternative option for osteoporosis prevention in men. This paper aims to review the current evidence regarding the skeletal effects of tocotrienol in animal models of male osteoporosis and its potential antiosteoporotic mechanism. The efficacy of tocotrienol of various sources (single isoform, palm and annatto vitamin E mixture) had been tested in animal models of bone loss induced by testosterone deficiency (orchidectomy and buserelin), metabolic syndrome, nicotine, alcoholism, and glucocorticoid. The treated animals showed improvements ranging from bone microstructural indices, histomorphometric indices, calcium content, and mechanical strength. The bone-sparing effects of tocotrienol may be exerted through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and mevalonate-suppressive pathways. However, information pertaining to its mechanism of actions is superficial and warrants further studies. As a conclusion, tocotrienol could serve as a functional food component to prevent male osteoporosis, but its application requires validation from a clinical trial in men.

The Effects of Annatto Tocotrienol Supplementation on Cartilage and Subchondral Bone in an Animal Model of Osteoarthritis Induced by Monosodium Iodoacetate

“…Three groups receiving MIA injection were administrated annatto tocotrienol orally at the dose of 50, 100, 150 mg/kg/day a day after the MIA injection. The doses were based on previous studies, whereby annatto tocotrienol demonstrated skeletal effects at doses between 60–100 mg/kg [20]. The sham and MIA group were supplemented with an equal volume of olive oil.…”

Potential Role of Tocotrienols on Non-Communicable Diseases: A Review of Current Evidence

“…T3 and TF exists naturally as alpha-(α-), beta-(β-), gamma-(γ-), and delta-(δ-) isomers depending on the position of the side chains on the chromanol ring. Both TF and T3 have been regarded as nutraceuticals with a wide range of biological activities against pathological complications, including dyslipidemia [6], cardiovascular [7], musculoskeletal, rheumatoid diseases [8][9][10][11][12][13], gastric [13], neurodegenerative [14], and metabolic diseases [6,15], as well as cancers [16]. The biological effects of T3 can be contributed by its potent anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-tumor, cholesterol-lowering [through inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) activity] activities [8,9,17].…”

The Effects of Tocotrienol on Bone Peptides in a Rat Model of Osteoporosis Induced by Metabolic Syndrome: The Possible Communication between Bone Cells

“…Palm-based tocotrienol contains approximately 75% tocotrienol and 25% tocopherol, whereas annatto-derived tocotrienol solely consists of tocotrienol (99.9%) with the absence of tocopherol [13]. The ability of tocotrienol mixture to mitigate MetS-associated medical conditions [14] and bone deterioration [15,16] has been well-established. Tocotrienol was found to alleviate MetS features through its potent anti-inflammatory [17], anti-oxidative [18,19] and cholesterol-reduction properties [20].…”