A Traditional Chinese Medicine Plant Extract Prevents Alcohol-Induced Osteopenia

Dongyang Qian; Hui Zhou; Pan Fan; Tao Yu; Anish Patel; Morgan O'Brien; Zhe Wang; Shiguang Lu; Guoqiang Tong; Yimin Shan; Lei Wang; Yuan Gao; Yuan Xiong; Lily Zhang; Xin Wang; Yuancai Liu; Shuanhu Zhou

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.754088

A Traditional Chinese Medicine Plant Extract Prevents Alcohol-Induced Osteopenia

Front Pharmacol. 2021 Dec 15:12:754088. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.754088. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Dongyang Qian^{1

2}, Hui Zhou³, Pan Fan^{1

4}, Tao Yu^{1

5}, Anish Patel¹, Morgan O'Brien¹, Zhe Wang³, Shiguang Lu³, Guoqiang Tong³, Yimin Shan³, Lei Wang³, Yuan Gao^{1

6}, Yuan Xiong^{1

7}, Lily Zhang¹, Xin Wang⁸, Yuancai Liu³, Shuanhu Zhou^{1

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States.
² Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Jing Brand Research Institute, Jing Brand Co., Ltd., Daye, China.
⁴ Department of Spine Center, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University Medical School, Nanjing, China.
⁵ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Department of Orthopaedics, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
⁷ Department of Orthopaedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁸ Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
⁹ Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been practiced in the treatment of bone diseases and alcoholism. Chronic excessive alcohol use results in alcohol-induced bone diseases, including osteopenia and osteoporosis, which increases fracture risk, deficient bone repair, and osteonecrosis. This preclinical study investigated the therapeutic effects of TCM herbal extracts in animal models of chronic excessive alcohol consumption-induced osteopenia. TCM herbal extracts (Jing extracts) were prepared from nine Chinese herbal medicines, a combinative herbal formula for antifatigue and immune regulation, including Astragalus, Cistanche deserticola, Dioscorea polystachya, Lycium barbarum, Epimedium, Cinnamomum cassia, Syzygium aromaticum, Angelica sinensis, and Curculigo orchioides. In this study, Balb/c male mice were orally administrated alcohol (3.2 g/kg/day) with/without TCM herbal extracts (0.125 g/kg, 0.25 g/kg, or 0.5 g/kg) by gavage. Our results showed that after 50 days of oral administration, TCM herbal extracts prevented alcohol-induced osteopenia demonstrated by μ-CT bone morphological analysis in young adults and middle-aged/old Balb/c male mice. Biochemical analysis demonstrated that chronic alcohol consumption inhibits bone formation and has a neutral impact on bone resorption, suggesting that TCM herbal extracts (Jing extracts) mitigate the alcohol-induced abnormal bone metabolism in middle-aged/old male mice. Protocatechuic acid, a natural phenolic acid in Jing extracts, mitigates in vivo alcohol-induced decline of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) gene expression in the bone marrow of Balb/c male mice and in vitro ALP activity in pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells. Our study suggests that TCM herbal extracts prevent chronic excessive alcohol consumption-induced osteopenia in male mice, implying that traditional medicinal plants have the therapeutic potential of preventing alcohol-induced bone diseases.

Keywords: TCM herbal extracts; alcohol-induced bone diseases; ethnopharmacology; osteoporosis; traditional Chinese medicine.