Research Article Antiosteoporosis Effect of Radix Scutellariae Extract on Density and Microstructure of Long Bones in Tail-Suspended Sprague-Dawley Rats

Copyright © 2013 Chen-Rui Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Radix Scutellariae (RS), a medicinal herb, is extensively employed in traditional Chinese medicines and modern herbal prescriptions. Two major flavonoids in RS were known to induce osteoblastic differentiation and inhibit osteoclast differentiation, respectively. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Radix Scutellariae extract (RSE) against bone loss induced by mechanical inactivity or weightlessness. A hindlimb unloading tail-suspended rat model (TS) was established to determine the effect of RSE on bone mineral density and bone microarchitecture. Treatment of RSE at 50mg/kg/day and alendronate (ALE) at 2mg/kg/day as positive control for 42 days significantly increased the bone mineral density and mechanical strength compared with TS group. Enhanced bone turnovermarkers by TS treatmentwere attenuated byRSE andALE administration. Deterioration of bone trabecula induced by TS was prevented. Moreover, both treatments counteracted the reduction of bone volume fraction, trabecular thickness and number, and connectivity density. In conclusion, RSE was demonstrated for the first time to prevent osteoporosis induced by TS treatment, which suggests the potential application of RSE in the treatment of disuse-induced osteoporosis. 1