1H NMR-based metabonomic study on the effects of Epimedium on glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis

Glucocorticoids are widely used in clinical practice for the treatment of many immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases, and glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIO) is the most common type of secondary osteoporosis. Epimedium is one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese medicines for treating osteoporosis. In the present study, we systematically analysed the metabonomic characteristics of GIO model rats and elucidated the therapeutic effect of Epimedium by using a 1H NMR-based metabonomic approach in conjunction with multivariate data analysis. Rats in treatment and model groups were injected with dexamethasone (0.1 mg/kg/day) for 5 weeks. Simultaneously, two treatment groups were orally administered Epimedium (10 g/kg/day) or Alendronate (1.2 mg/kg/day) for 5 weeks. In GIO model rats, lipid and lactate levels in serum were increased, while creatine/creatinine, PC/GPC, taurine, glycine and β-glucose levels were decreased. In urine, GIO rats had higher levels of phenylacetylglycine but lower levels of 2-oxoglutarate, citrate, creatine/creatinine, taurine, PC/GPC and hippurate than controls. Epimedium reversed the aforementioned metabolic alterations in multiple metabolic pathways involved in energy, lipid, amino acid and phospholipid metabolism and gut microbiota derangement. Our results indicated that Epimedium had significant effects in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. It is concluded that 1H NMR metabonomics is a useful method for studying the metabolic effects of traditional Chinese medicine from a systematic and holistic view.