Effects of Deer Antler Extract on Serum IGF-I, Bone Growth and Splenocyte Proliferation in Growing Rats

Although it has traditionally known that deer antler and medicinal herbs extract contain some functional components for health promotion, the nutritional significance remains to be elucidated. This study examined the efficacy of deer antler extract (DA) , medicinal herbs extract (MH) and their mixture (DAMH) on serum IGF-I, bone growth with growing rats in vivo and splenocyte proliferation with spleen cells in vitro. Three week-old young female rats (Sprague-Dawley) were divided into 4 groups and then fed basal diet (AIN-93G) or experimental diets containing DA, MH, DAMH, respectively, for 7 weeks. We collected blood, liver, kidney, spleen, femur and tibia from rats. There was no significant difference in weight gain, but food intake increased in DA- and MH-fed groups. There were no signs of liver and kidney damage in the DA, MH and DAMH-fed groups compared to basal diet group. In femur and tibia, wet weights, breaking forces and bone minerals (Ca, Mg and Zn) were significantly higher in the DA-fed group than in the other groups. Serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) , bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP) activities were significantly lower in the DA, MH, DAMH-fed groups than in basal diet group. Also, serum insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) concentrations were significantly increased in DA-fed group compared to the other groups. Therefore DA was shown to have an activity of bone growth promotion by increasing the IGF-I, a major bone growth factor. The deer antler extract showed an enhanced immune action on the primary cultured-cells from spleen of rats, representing that splenocytes were proliferated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) , but not by concanavalin A (Con A) . These results indicate that deer antler extract has beneficial effects on bone growth via IGF-I and on splenocyte activation.

The Effects of Deer(Cervus nippon) Antler Extracts on Differentiation of MC3T3 Cells / 대한치주과학회지

Deer antler has been widely prescribed in Chinese and Korean pharmacology. Although there have been several reports concerning the effects of deer antler, such as anti-aging action, anti-inflammatory activity, antifungal action and regulatory activity of the level of glucose, the effect on bone has not determined yet. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of deer antler on osteoblast differentiation. Hexane extract(CNH) and chloroform extract(CN-C) were acquired from deer antler(Cervus nippon) and MC3T3-E1 preosteoblasts were cultured in the presence or absence of each extract. Osteoblast differentiation was estimated with the formation of mineralized nodules and the mRNA expression of alkaline phosphatase(ALP), osteocalcin(OC) and bone sialoprotein(BSP) which are markers of osteoblast differentiation. Non-treated group did not show mineralized nodule. CN-C or CN-H-treated group showed minerlaized nodules in 16 days. In northern blot analysis, CN-C or CN-H-treated group showed the elevated expression of ALP, BSP and OC in 16 days. These results suggest the possibility to develop deer antler as a bone regenerative agent in periodontal therapy by showing the stimulating activity of deer antler on differentiation of osteoblast.