Elsevier

Osteoarthritis and Cartilage

Volume 15, Issue 9, September 2007, Pages 1086-1092
Osteoarthritis and Cartilage

Alleviation of osteoarthritis by calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (CG) isolated from Astragali radix (AR) in rabbit osteoarthritis (OA) model1

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Summary

Objective

This work was undertaken to assess the protective effect of an isoflavonoid, calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (CG), isolated from Astragali radix (AR) on the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA)-like lesion in a rabbit model.

Methods

Nine rabbits underwent an anterior cruciate ligament and menisectomy transection (ACLMT) of the rear knee joints to induce OA-like lesion. They were randomly divided into three groups (n = 6/group): a negative control group treated with 200 μl of 0.5% (v/v) dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a positive control group treated with 200 μl of 100 μM piroxicam, and a test group treated with 100 μg/500 μl of CG, where the test agents were administered by injection once a week for 4 weeks starting from the third week. Rabbits were then sacrificed to observe the progression of OA-like lesion. The synovial fluid was analyzed for the amounts of total proteins, glycosaminoglycans (GAG) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). In addition, histopathologic analyses were performed on the OA-like articular cartilage with or without therapeutic treatments.

Results

The total synovial fluid volume (P < 0.05) was most strikingly reduced by the treatment with CG. Moreover, the CG treatment also significantly alleviated the OA-induced accumulation of prostaglandin (PG) (P < 0.001) and total proteins (P < 0.001) in the synovial fluid. The histopathologic analyses revealed that the CG treatment reduced the severity of the OA-like structural damages in the cartilage. However, the level of PGE2, a pathologic inflammatory molecule, was not diminished by CG or piroxicam.

Conclusion

These results indicate that the isoflavonoid CG isolated from AR significantly alleviated the pathologic changes in the OA-like rabbit knee joints. This suggests that CG from AR could be a promising treatment for the therapy of OA.

Key words

Osteoarthritis
Astragali radix
Isoflavonoid
Calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside
ACLMT

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1

Supported by a Biological Technology Research (No. 30762) grant from Inha University, South Korea, in 2004.

a

Present address: Plant Resource Research Institute, Duksung Women's University, Seoul 132-714, South Korea.