The Effects of Medicinal Herbs Extracts on Estrogen-like Activities and Osteoblast Proliferation and Differentiation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 3 types of medicinal herbs (Glycyrrhizae radix, Astragali radix and Dioscorea rhizoma) extracts on estrogen-like activities, proliferation and differentiation in osteoblast. Human breast cancer cell line MCF7 was transfected using an estrogen responsive luciferase reporter plasmid for measure the estrogen-like activity. Estrogen-like activities of extracts were in the range of 1.11~5.73 fold to that of negative control. The extract of G. radix showed the strongest estrogen-like activities. The estrogen-like activities of 50 and 500 μg/ml extracts of G. radix were similar to that of 10 -8 and 10 -7 M standard solution (17β-estradiol), respectively. G. radix extract showed no cytotoxicity against osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells at 1~1,000 μg/ml. The extract of A. radix showed no significant proliferation of osteoblast. However, the extract of G. radix and D. rhizome showed maximum 148% and 133% proliferation effects. The extract of G. radix also increased alkaline phosphatase activity and the maximum was 122% at 100 μg/ml compared to that of control. The nodule formation by the method of the Alizarin red S staining increased compared to control. These results suggest that G. radix is able to perform the bone formation and prevent osteoporosis.Key words : Estrogen-like activity, luciferase, medicinal herbs, menopausal women, osteoblast *Corresponding authorTel : +82-51-999-5624, Fax : +82-51-999-5636 E-mail : slee@silla.ac.kr This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 한약재는 오랜 기간 동안 임상적 경험을 토대로 하여 많은