Dioscin has been shown to play important roles in suppression of osteoclast maturation. It is proposed as a potential
natural product for the treatment of osteoclast-related diseases. We hypothesized in this study that treatment of
dioscin on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) could increase the osteo-chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs and promote endochondral ossification of BMSCs in
bone fracture environment. BMSCs were extracted from femur and tibia of male C57b mice. Stemness of BMSCs was studied by performing proliferation assay and multilineage differentiation.
Glycosaminoglycans (GAG) and
collagen contents were assessed to examine the chondrogenesis of BMSCs. Real time quantitative PCR was carried out to examine the expression of hypertrophic marker
collagen type X. Efficacy of
Dioscin was then tested in mouse
bone fracture model on the distal side of femur. Results showed treatment of
dioscin on BMSCs increased chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs as well as the expression of
collagen type X. Local delivery of
dioscin promoted endochondral ossification at bone fractured site, as shown by histological examination. Results of immunohistochemistry showed that
dioscin increased
collagen type X expression in bone facture model of mice. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that treatment of
dioscin promote the hypertrophic differentiation of BMSCs derived chondrocytes.
Dioscin could be a useful
drug to promote bone regeneration after fracture.