ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1604096
This article is part of the Research TopicHerbal Medicine for the Treatment of Chronic Metabolic Diseases, Volume IIView all 36 articles
Scorpion-Centipede extracts mitigate ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in mice through facilitating CX3CR1 expression
Provisionally accepted
- Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
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Abstract Objective Scorpio and Centipede (SC) is an ancient formula of traditional Chinese medicine that is commonly utilized in a range of disorders, and it has been shown to have pharmacological effects on postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP). However, the specific mechanism of SC for the treatment of PMOP remains to be further investigated. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic potential of a traditional Chinese medicine formula consisting of Scorpio and Centipede (SC) in regulating the osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) to treat PMOP. Methods The ovariectomy-induced mice (OVX) were established and divided into a sham surgery group, OVX, OVX with alendronate sodium, and OVX with SC, and kept for 10 weeks. In vitro experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of SC on osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation in BMMSCs, MC3T3-E1, and 3T3-L1 cells. Results The results showed that SC treatment significantly improved bone mineral density (BMD), trabecular separation (Tb.Sp), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), trabecular number (Tb.N), bone volume fraction (BV/TV), and trabecular pattern factor (Tb.Pf) in OVX mice. In addition, SC treatment markedly increased Runx2, Osx, Alp, and CX3CR1 while decreasing adipogenic genes like PPARγ and C/EBPα in the bone tissue of OVX mice and BMMSCs. Notably, the effects of SC on osteogenic and adipogenic genes were blocked in Cx3cr1 knockdown MC3T3-E1 and 3T3-L1 cells. Conclusions This study demonstrates that the SC effectively increases bone mass and osteogenesis by promoting Cx3cr1, thereby increasing osteogenic differentiation and inhibiting adipogenic differentiation. These findings amplified the mechanisms of SC and its potential to treat PMOP.
Keywords: Scorpion-Centipede, CX3CR1, Osteogenic differentiation, adipogenic differentiation, PMOP
Received: 01 Apr 2025; Accepted: 12 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ni, Yu, Wang, Chen, Shang, Fang, Du and Min. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Penghua Fang, hlcollegesci@sina.cn
Bin Du, robindu10@sina.com
Wen Min, wenmin@njucm.edu.cn
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