[The effect of simvastatin on osteoblastic bionomics of rats].

PURPOSE: To study the effect of simvastatin on osteoblast proliferation, differentiation and mineralization and to explore the mechanism of stimulation of bone formation by simvastatin. METHODS: Six 8-hour healthy SD rats were used for the experiment. In order to harvest vital osteoblast, this research modified the traditional tissue piece method to culture primary osteoblast of rat calvarias.The effect of simvastatin in different concentration(1.0micromol/L,0.5micromol/L,0.25micromol/L,0.125micromol/L) on osteoblast was measured using MTT to assay osteoblasts proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity of osteoblasts was measured, the level of osteocalcin (OC) was detected, the capacity of mineralization was investigated by counting the mean mineralization area with Image-Pro Plus 6.0.The data was analyzed with SPSS 13.0 software package for one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the osteoblasts proliferation was inhibited in the experimental groups in a dose-dependent manner. It showed that the alkaline phosphatase activity of osteoblast was increased in all experimental groups. The level of OC of osteoblasts showed a significant increase in all treatment groups. With regard to osteoblast capability of mineralization, the mineralization area was also increased, compared with the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Simvastatin inhabits the proliferation of osteoblasts in vitro, but promotes differentiation and mineralization of osteoblast.