Inhibition of IL-1β and IL-6 in osteoblast-like cell by isoflavones extracted fromSophorae fructus

Osteoporosis is recognized as one of the major hormonal deficiency diseases, especially in menopausal women and the elderly. When estrogen is reduced in the body, local factors such as IL-1β and IL-6, which are known to be related with bone resorption, are increased and promote osteoclastogenesis, which is responsible for bone resorption. In the present study, we investigated whether glucosidic isoflavones (Isocal, Pill) extracted fromSophorae fructus affect the proliferation of osteoblasts and prevent osteoclastogenesisin vitro by attenuating upstream cytokines such as IL-1 β and IL-6 in a human osteoblastic cell line (MG-63) and in a primary osteoblastic culture from SD rat femurs. Interestingly, IL-1β and IL-6 mRNA were significantly suppressed in osteoblast-like cells treated with 17β-estradiol (E2) and PIN when compared to positive control (SDB), and this suppression was more effective at 10-8% than at the highest concentration of 10-4%. In addition, these were confirmed in protein levels using ELISA assay. In the cell line, the cells showed that E2 was the most effective in osteoblastic proliferation over the whole range of concentration (10-4%-10_12%), even though Pill also showed the second greatest effectiveness at 10-8%. Nitric oxide (NO) was significantly (p<0.05) upregulated in PIN and E2 over the concentration range 1CT-6% to 10-8% when compared to SDB, without showing any dose dependency. In bone marrow primary culture, we found by TRAP assay that Plll effectively suppressed osteoclastogenesis next to E2 in comparison with SDB and culture media (control). In conclusion, these results suggest that local bone-resorbing cytokines can be regulated by Plll at lower concentrations and that, therefore, Plll may preferentially induce anti-osteoporosis response by attenuating osteoclastic differentiation and by upregulating NO.