ABSTRACT
Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) was administered to rats to investigate the efficacy of DHEA in prevention of the process of osteoporosis induced by oophorectomy. Female Sprague-Dawley rats, aged five months, were divided into three groups; Group 1(40 rats), sham operation as control; group 2(40 rats), bilateral oophorectomy; and group 3(20 rats), intraperitoneal injection of 10mg of DHEA every other day from 4 weeks after bilateral oophorectomy. In group 1 and 2, five rats of each group were sacrificed weekly until the 8th week. In group 3, five rats were killed weekly from 1 week to 4 weeks after DHEA administration. Trabecular bone area(TBA) of proximal metaphysic of left tibia was obtained by quantitative image analysis system. In group 1, TBA was not changed with time after sham operation, In group 2, TBA decreased progressively through eight weeks after oophorectomy. In group 3, TBA’s were higher than those of group 2, but they were still lower than those of group 1. These data suggested that DHEA, administered to rats from 4 weeks to 8 weeks after bilateral oophorectomy, may partially recover the osteoporosis or delay the progression of the osteoporotic change until 8 weeks after the oophorectomy.