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Bone Regeneration by Homeopathic Symphytum officinale

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Abstract

Purpose

Cell therapy has been proposed as an effective treatment method for bone regeneration using stem cells and osteogenic inducting mediators. In the present study, the ability of homeopathic remedy Symphytum officinale to induce osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rat BM-MSCs) was studied

Methods

MSCs were isolated from the rat’s bone morrow. Cytotoxic effect of Symphytum on the MSCs was evaluated by MTT assay. The osteogenic induction ability of Symphytum has been assessed by alizarin red staining (ALZ) and quantitative alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assays and compared with the osteogenic standard medium.

Results

MTT assay results illustrated that Symphytum 200 C had a high cytotoxicity (to about 75.2 ± 3.12), so that lower potencies were used for the next experiments. Symphytum 6 C had the most color intensity in ALZ and ALP staining assays. Also, quantitative analyses of ALP activity revealed that Symphytum 6 C caused the most increase in the ALP activity up to 4.04 ± 0.34 and 7.86 ± 1.38 on day 7 and 21, respectively.

Conclusions

According to this finding, Symphytum could enhance osteogenic differentiation of MSCs and can be considered as a safe, low cost, and highly effective drug for bone regeneration.

Lay Summary

Cell therapy has been proposed as an effective treatment method for bone regeneration using stem cells and osteogenic inducting mediators. In the present study, the ability of homeopathic remedy Symphytum officinale to induce osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rat BM-MSCs) was studied. The results illustrated that Symphytum 6 C had the most osteogenic induction effect compare with osteogenic standard medium. According to this finding, Symphytum officinale as a natural compound can significantly induce osteogenic differentiation of rat BM-MSCs. So, it could be considered as a safe and more cost-effective therapeutic agent for clinical treatment of bone disorders.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran, for approval and financial support of this project with the grant number 911297. The results presented in this article are the results of the master thesis of Mrs. Shahla Vaezi.

Funding

The study was financially supported by the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran, with the grant number 911297.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Science, Islamic Azad University, Damghan Branch, Damghan, Iran

    Shahla Vaezi

  2. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran

    Hamideh Moalemzadeh Haghighi

  3. Pharmaceutical Research Center, Pharmaceutical Technology Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Sara Amel Farzad

  4. Biotechnology Research Center, Pharmaceutical Technology Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran, P. O. Box 91775-1365, Mashhad, Iran

    Sepideh Arabzadeh & Fatemeh Kalalinia

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  1. Shahla Vaezi
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Correspondence to Fatemeh Kalalinia.

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Description of future works

In the future works, the effects of Symphytum officinale on the osteogenic differentiation will be studied more on the molecular level (specific osteogenic gene expression at mRNA and protein level). Also, the effectiveness of Symphytum officinale on the bone generation will be studied in the clinical trial studies.

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Vaezi, S., Haghighi, H.M., Farzad, S.A. et al. Bone Regeneration by Homeopathic Symphytum officinale. Regen. Eng. Transl. Med. 7, 548–555 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40883-020-00181-z

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