| Osteoporosis (OP) is a bone metabolic disease in which bone resorption is over bone formation. With the increase of global aging, it seriously threatens human health and safety. Dipsacus, as a traditional kidney-tonifying traditional Chinese medicine, has great potential in the prevention and treatment of OP. Relevant studies have shown that dipsacus prevents and treats OP through multi-target and multi-channel regulation of related signaling pathways. The latest pharmacological studies have proved that ingredients such as aketoside D of dipsacus extract intervenes with the expression of alkaline phosphatase, osteoprotegerin, osteocalcin, and other protein factors by regulating related signaling pathways and pro-inflammatory factors, and acts on osteoblasts, osteoclasts, etc. Bone cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells effectively prevent and treat OP. By searching the basic research on the prevention and treatment of OP with dipsacus extract, it has been found that akebia saponin D, ursolic acid, and polysaccharides of dipsacus extract promote bone formation through Wnt/β-catenin, MAPK, PI3K/AKT, and BMP-Smads signaling pathways. OPG/RANKL/RANK and estrogen signaling pathways inhibit bone resorption to prevent and treat OP. The authors review how dipsacus extract regulates different signaling pathways, promotes osteoblast proliferation, inhibits osteoclast differentiation, and induces bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell directional differentiation, so as to provide new ideas for the basic research of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of OP in the future. |