Icariin Regulates Expression of Cytokines in Osteoblasts

Objective To observe the effects of icariin o n mRNA expression of TGF-β 1?TNF-α and IL-6 in osteoblasts in vitro as comp ared with the effects of estrogen.Methods Mix the different concentrations of icariin or es trogen into the third generation osteoblasts from the skull of newborn SD rats t o observe the mRNA expression of TGF-β 1?TNF-α and IL-6 by RT-PCR respec tively. Results The mRNA expression of IL-6?TNF-α were decrea sed and TGF-β1 was increased by 10 μg/ml icariin and 3 different concentratio ns of 17β-E 2.while 5 μg/ml icariin was used,no influence on TNF-α.was fou nd.Different concentrations of icarrin or estrogen had no difference on mRNA exp ression of IL-6 and TNF-α,while 10 -8 mol/L estrogen had the maximal eff ects on mRNA expression of TGF-β 1. Conclusion The mechanism of icariin increasing BMD may be partly explained by the increasing mRNA expression of TGF-β 1 and decreasin g of mRNA expression of IL-6 and TNF-α.