Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Effect of Eucommia ulmoides extract on osteoblast proliferation

Haidong Liang^1,2, Fang Yu², Xuehui Liu², Bo Yuan², Zhengnan Zhao², Shufang Wu¹

¹Center for Translational Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Medicine, 277 West Yanta Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710061; ²The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116023, People's Republic of China.

For correspondence:- Shufang Wu Email: sfangwu@aliyun.com

Accepted: 14 October 2017 Published: 30 November 2017

Citation: Liang H, Yu F, Liu X, Yuan B, Zhao Z, Wu S. Effect of Eucommia ulmoides extract on osteoblast proliferation. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(11):2675-2679 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i11.15

© 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 evaluate the effect of Eucommia ulmoides extract (EUE) on osteoblast proliferation as well as investigate its probable mechanisms of action.

Methods: EUE was pharmacologically evaluated at three doses. Osteoblast cells were divided as follows: Group I: negative control; groups II–IV: received EUE (180, 360 and 540 μg/ml, respectively). We performed 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay to determine osteoblast viability following treatment. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteocalcin, and collagen I levels in osteoblasts were quantified using commercially available kits. Thereafter, mRNA and protein expression of ALP, collagen I, osteocalcin, transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) were measured using real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and western blot, respectively.

Results: EUE significantly (p < 0.01) promoted osteoblast proliferation at three treatment doses (180, 360, and 540 μg/mL). Furthermore, ALP, osteocalcin, collagen I and TGF-β1 expression at both mRNA and protein levels increased significantly (all p < 0.05) following EUE treatment.

Conclusion: The results suggest that EUE may promote osteoblast cell proliferation and that ALP, osteocalcin, collagen I and TGF-β1 gene expression may be involved in the mechanism of action

Keywords: qPCR, collagen I, Bone, Liver, Eucommia ulmoides extract