ABSTRACT
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Deer antler, traditionally used as a tonic and valuable drug in oriental medicine, has been considered to possess bone-strengthening activity and effectively used in bone diseases therapy. AIM OF THE STUDY: The present study was designed to investigate therapeutic effect of antler extract on avascular necrosis of the femoral head (ANFH) induced by corticosteroids in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were intragluteally injected with dexamethasone at 50mg/kg twice per week for 6 weeks to induce ANFH. Then the rats were treated with antler extract by oral gavage at 200mg/kg, 400mg/kg and 800 mg/kg once per day for 60 days. The concentration of hydroxyproline and hexosamine in serum was measured and the ultrastructure of femoral head was examined. In vitro, effect of the drug-containing serum of antler extract on proliferation and differentiation of primary osteoblasts were investigated by MIT assay, ALP activity assay and cell cycle analysis. RESULTS: After treatment with antler extract, the degree of necrosis induced by dexamethasone was significantly reduced, hydroxyproline was significantly decreased, and hexosamine and the ratio of hexosamine/hydroxyproline were significantly increased. The drug-containing serum of antler extract promotes osteoblastic proliferation through regulation of cell cycle progression. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that antler extract has a positive curative effect on ANFH by promoting osteoblastic proliferation.
Subject(s)
Antlers/chemistry , Deer , Dexamethasone/toxicity , Femur Head Necrosis/drug therapy , Glucocorticoids/toxicity , Materia Medica , Tissue Extracts/pharmacology , Animals , Animals, Newborn , Cell Cycle/drug effects , Cell Differentiation/drug effects , Cell Proliferation/drug effects , Cells, Cultured , Disease Models, Animal , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Female , Femur Head/drug effects , Femur Head/ultrastructure , Femur Head Necrosis/blood , Femur Head Necrosis/chemically induced , Hexosamines/blood , Hydroxyproline/blood , Male , Medicine, Chinese Traditional , Osteoblasts/cytology , Osteoblasts/drug effects , Osteoblasts/enzymology , Random Allocation , Rats , Rats, WistarABSTRACT
In the course of postoperative fractionated radiation therapy hydroxyproline was evaluated as a biochemical parameter of radiation damage in 60 patients with different tumour diseases. At different times before, during and after therapy, hydroxyproline in serum was evaluated according to the method of Dabew and Struck, hydroxyproline in urine according to the test combination "hypronosticon" (Organon-Technika). There was no correlation to be found between hydroxyproline in serum or urine, clinical course of disease and radiation dose. Possible explanations were discussed.