ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:More recently, the focus has been on searching for a compound Chinese medicine for reinforcing kidney, which cannot only inhibit bone absorption, but also promote osteogenesis to protect against osteoporosis. OBJECTIVE:To explore effects of drug serum of Jianbuhuqian pil s on proliferation and function of osteoblast-like cel s in vitro. METHODS:Twenty-four adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into low-dose, medium-dose, high-dose and normal saline groups, and given intragastric administration of 1.5, 3.0, and 6 g/kg Jianbuhuqian pills and equal volume of normal saline, respectively twice daily for 1 week. At 1 hour after final gavage, rats were decapitated to prepare drug sera used for culturing osteoblast-like cells. At 24, 48 and 72 hours of culture, the cellular morphology was observed, as well as the cell proliferation and alkaline phosphatase activity was detected by MTT assay and alkaline phosphatase staining, respectively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with the normal saline group, the cel density began to increase significantly in three Jianbuhuqian groups at 24 hours after culture, mitotic figures were easy to be observed, cel s were in overlapping growth, much secretions and matrix accumulation appeared, especial y in the high-dose group. The obsorbance values in Jianbuhuqian groups were significantly higher than that in the normal saline group. After 24 hours of culture, the obsorbance values in the medium-dose and high-dose groups were significantly increased compared with the low-dose group, and the values showed significant differences among three Jianbuhuqian groups after 48 and 72-hour culture. In addition, the alkaline phosphatase activity presented overt increase in the Jianbuhuqian groups compared with the normal saline group, and significant differences could be found among Jianbuhuqian groups. To conclude, the drug serum of Jianbuhuqian pil s can promote the activity of osteoblast-like cel s in a time-and concentration-dependent manner.