Angelica sinensis ( Oliv .) Diels is a widely-used traditional Chinese herbal medicine in treating osteoporosis. Ligustilide (LIG) is the main component of A . sinensis and is considered to be the most effective biologically active ingredient in this plant. LIG has been found to have multiple pharmacological activities, such as anti-atherosclerosis, neuroprotection, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and analgesic. However, little is known regarding its anti-osteoporotic effects. The aims of this study were to investigate any protective effect of LIG on bone formation. The results showed that LIG significantly ameliorated inhibition of bone formation in zebrafish caused by prednisolone. LIG promoted osteoblast differentiation, including that of the pre-osteoblastic cell line MC3T3-E1 and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. LIG greatly improved the viability of MC3T3-E1 cells exposed to H 2 O 2 , attenuated H 2 O 2 -induced apoptosis and increased the expression of Bcl-2. Furthermore, LIG treatment lead to marked activation of phosphorylated EGFR and ERK1/2. These effects could be obviously inhibited by blocking GPR30 signaling with the specific inhibitor G15. Collectively, the results reveal that GPR30 is a positive switch for LIG to increase bone formation via regulation of EGFR, and these results provide evidence for the potential of LIG to treat osteoporosis.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the research was to examine the expression level of microRNA221/222 (miR-221/222) in the serum of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who are also diagnosed with post-menopausal breast cancer. We aimed to evaluate the differences in microRNA expression in patients with T2DM alone, patients with postmenopausal breast cancer alone, and patients with both T2DM and postmenopausal breast cancer. We selected 20 cases from a healthy control group, 30 cases from the group of patients with T2DM and obesity, 30 cases from the group of the patients with post-menopausal breast cancer, and 30 cases from the group of patients with both T2DM and post-menopausal breast cancer. The expression of miR-221/222 in the serum of the patients with post-menopausal breast cancer was higher than that of T2DM patients (P < 0.05), but lower than that of the T2DM patients who were also positive for post-menopausal breast cancer (P < 0.05); the expression of miR-221/222 in the serum of the T2DM patients was higher than that of the healthy controls (P < 0.05). BMI, HOMA-IR, HbA1c, and TG were positively correlated with the relative expression of miR-221/222 in the serum (P < 0.01). In conclusion, miR-