Objective To explore the effect of nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe on the treatment of diabetes mellitus combined with osteoporosis after ovariectomy and the signal pathway in rats, and to lay a foundation for the treatment of osteoporosis. Methods Fifty SPF-grade female SD rats were divided into control group (n=10), model group (n=8), calcitariol group (n=8), low-dose nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe group (n=8), middle-dose nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe group (n=8), and high-dose nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe group (n=8). The model group was fed with high-sugar and high-fat diet and injected with streptozotocin to establish a diabetic rat model with ovariectomized osteoporosis. After successful modeling, rats in the low-dose nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe group, the middle-dose nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe group, and the high-dose nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe group received 5g/(kg?d), 10g/(kg?d), and 20g/(kg?d) of nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe intragastrically, respectively. Rats in calcitariol group recieved 0.1 g/kg/d of calcitariol per day. The rats were gavaged once per day for 8 weeks. After the treatment, the structure change of the tibia was observed with HE staining. The protein expressions of p-NF-κB, NF-κB, IkB, and MyD88 were detected with Western blotting. The expressions of Wnt-3α, LRP-5, and β-catenin were detected using RT-PCR. Results Compared with those in the model group, the tibial trabeculae arranged densely and the connection between bone trabeculae increased in high-dose nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe group. The expression levels of p-NF-κB/NF-κB, IkB, and MyD88 decreased, the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-8, IL-10 decreased significantly, and the levels of Wnt-3α, LRP-5, β-catenin increased significantly in both middle-dose group and high-dose group (P<0.05). Conclusion The treatment of diabetic rats with ovariectomized osteoporosis with nourishing Yin and tonifying kidney recipe significantly increases the number of osteoblasts and bone mass possibly through up-regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. |