Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Anti-osteoporotic effect of Gengnian Jianshen decoction in rats

Wang Wang¹, Qi-Bin Lu² , Qiang Fu³, Jie Mao¹, Jun Li³,

¹Department of Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210017; ²Department of Gynecology, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province; ³Department of Orthopedics, Changhai Hospital Affiliated to The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.

For correspondence:- Qi-Bin Lu Email: luqibin494@126.com Tel:+862585811926

Received: 31 October 2016 Accepted: 15 July 2017 Published: 31 August 2017

Citation: Wang W, Lu Q, Fu Q, Mao J, Li J, Anti-osteoporotic effect of Gengnian Jianshen decoction in rats. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(8):1925-1929 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i8.24

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the therapeutic effect and mechanism of action of Gengnian Jianshen Decoction (GJD) on ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in rats.

Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to a sham-operated group (control), and five ovariectomy (OVX) sub-groups, that is, OVX with vehicle (OVX), OVX with Xianling Gubao capsule (positive control drug, 120 mg/kg/day), and OVX with GJD doses (70, 140, and 280 mg/kg/day). The treatments were given orally daily for 16 weeks (starting 4 weeks after the rats were subjected to ovariectomy. Bone mineral density (BMD) of the L4 vertebrae and right femur of each rat was estimated. Serum levels of estradiol (E2), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), as well as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and insulin-like growth factor 1(IGF-1) of rats in all the groups were determined using ELISA.

Results: The results showed that GJD dose-dependently inhibited BMD reduction in L4 vertebrae and femur, and significantly increased serum E2, FSH and LH levels (p < 0.05) in the osteoporotic rats. Moreover, GJD significantly decreased serum IL-6 levels and increased levels of IGF-1 (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: These findings indicate that GJD prevents OVX-induced osteoporosis in rats without hyperplastic effects on the uterus. Thus, GJD has potential for use in the treatment of post-menopausal osteoporosis.

Keywords: Gengnian Jianshen decoction, Osteoporosis, Ovariectomy, Bone mineral density