Project description:Beneficial effects of a soy diet on bone quality have been assumed to be due to the putative estrogenic actions of isoflavones. We studied the effects of soy protein isolate (SPI) on bone quality and compared these effects to 17Î²-estradiol (E2) in pre-pubertal rats. Female rats were weaned to a control diet with or without E2 (0.1, 1, 10 Âµg/kg/d), or SPI-containing diet with or without E2 (10 Âµg/kg/d) for 14 days beginning on postnatal day 20. In long bones from SPI-fed rats, only cancellous bone mineral density (BMD) was increased (p<0.05), while cortical BMD was decreased accompanied by lower bone strength compared to control casein-fed rats (p<0.05). In sharp contrast, 10 Âµg/kg/d E2 not only increased trabecular BMD, but also cortical BMD compared to controls. Rats treated with the combination of SPI and E2 had an intermediate bone effect. SPI increased while E2 decreased bone turnover, and increased trabecular BMD by both E2 and SPI was associated with decreased serum sclerostin levels. Microarray analysis revealed 652 genes regulated by SPI diet, 491 genes regulated by E2, and 266 genes regulated in common by both SPI diet and E2 compared to rats fed casein. The expression of caveolin-1, a protein localized in cell membrane, was down-regulated (p<0.05) in rats fed SPI, but not by E2 compared to rats fed casein. Down-regulated caveolin-1 by SPI was associated with increased BMP2, Smad and Runx2 expression in bone and osteoblasts (p<0.05). These results suggest SPI consumption results in significant non-classical estrogenic stimulation of cancellous bone formation prior to puberty, but may have adverse effects on overall bone quality and strength at this developmental stage as a result of reduced cortical bone formation. The study was designed to compare expression of bone development associated genes between soy protein isolate fed and estrogen treated pre pubertal female rats. Therefore, total RNA was isolated from bone from rats fed with control casein diet, SPI diet, 17 beta estrodial treated and SPI diet plus 17 beta estrodial.

Project description:Bone defects are a global public health problem. However, the available methods for bone regeneration are limited. In recent years, the application of traditional Chinese herbs for bone regeneration has attracted increasing attention. β-ecdysterone is a herbal extract similar to estrogen that promotes the metabolism of cell protein synthesis; however, its function on bone regeneration is not yet clear. In this study, we investigated the function of β-ecdysterone on osteoblast differentiation and bone regeneration in vitro and in vivo. MC3T3-E1 cells were used to test the function of β-ecdysterone on osteoblast differentiation and bone regeneration in vitro. The results of the CCK-8 assay suggested that the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells was promoted by β-ecdysterone. Furthermore, β-ecdysterone influenced the expression of osteogenesis-related genes, and the bone regeneration capacity of MC3T3-E1 cells was detected by PCR, the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) test, and the Alizarin Red test. β-ecdysterone could up-regulate the expression of osteoblastic-related genes, and promoted ALP activity and the formation of calcium nodules. Moreover, we also determined that β-ecdysterone increased the mRNA and protein levels of components of the BMP-2/Smad/Runx2/Osterix pathway. DNA sequencing further confirmed these target effects. β-ecdysterone promoted bone formation by enhancing gene expression of the BMP-2/Smad/Runx2/Osterix signaling pathway and by the enrichment biological processes. For in vivo experiments, the femur condyle defection model was constructed by drilling a critical-sized (3×3 mm) defect in 12-week-old SD male rats to further assess the bone regeneration functions of β-ecdysterone. The results of micro-CT showed that β-ecdysterone could accelerate bone regeneration and exhibited higher bone volume, bone surface, bone mineral density at each observation time point. Immunohistochemistry confirmed that the β-ecdysterone also increased the expression of collagen, osteocalcin, and BMP2 in the experiment group at 8 weeks. In conclusion, discovered β-ecdysterone is a new bone regeneration regulator that can stimulate MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation and induce bone regeneration through the BMP-2/Smad/Runx2/Osterix pathway. This new function of β-ecdysterone has revealed a new direction of osteogenic differentiation and has provided novel therapeutic strategies for treating bone defection.

Project description:Androgens are required for prostate development, growth and physiology, by activating the androgen receptor (AR) upon activation by testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the AR undergoes conformational changes, dimerizes and translocates to the cell nucleus regulation important genes releted to cell survival. Understanding the mechanisms of androgen regulation in the prostate gland is important, because the prostate is affected by several different diseases, in particular prostate cancer (PCa). Several ways exist to treat prostate cancer and promote epithelial cell death. Treatments involving androgen manipulation include surgical castration (bilateral orchiectomy), antiandrogens (usually AR antagonists), or substances that inhibit androgen synthesis (5 alpha-reductase inhibitors, gonadotrophin-releasing hormone blockers). 17 beta-estradiol exerts anti-androgen effects by blocking the hypothalamic production of gonadotropin-releasing hormone and thereby inhibiting the production of testosterone by the testes , but also acts locally via interactions with either of the estrogen receptors found in the gland. It is known that the kinetics of apoptosis are different in the rat ventral prostate (VP) of castrated rats (Cas group) and in rats subjected to 17 beta-estradiol high dose (group E2) or their combination (group Cas+E2), with an evident additive effect in the latter situation (Garcia-Florez et al, 2005). The microarray approach was done to figure out what genes are expressed and how the cells of ventral prostate gland responses when the androgen is not available comparing three diferent androgen deprivation methods (sirurgical castration, high dose of 17-beta estradiol and both treatment combined). Forty-eight 21-day-old male Wistar rats were obtained from the Multidisciplinary Center for Biological Research (CEMIB), University of Campinas. The animals were kept under normal light conditions (12-h light:dark cycle) and received filtered tap water and Purina rodent chow ad libitum. On the 90th day after birth, the rats were divided in four groups (n=3) and assigned to different treatment groups. To cause androgen deprivation, we utilized three different procedures with different effects on epithelial cell apoptosis. Animals in the first group were castrated (Cas) by orchiectomy via scrotal incision under ketamine (150 mg/Kg body weight) and xylazin (10 mg/kg body weight) anesthesia. Animals in the second group received a 25 mg/Kg body weight dose of 17β-estradiol diluted in corn oil (E2 group). The third group received a combination of both treatments (Cas+E2 group) (combined orchiectomy and 17β-estradiol). In the control group (Ct; normal androgen and estrogen), the animals received only the vehicle. Three days after the treatments, the rats were killed by anesthetic overdose, and the ventral prostate was dissected out for the microarray and immunohistochemistry analyses.

Dataset Information

E-GEOD-30862

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure