Dioscin stimulates differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells towards hypertrophic chondrocytes in vitro and endochondral ossification in vivo.

Dioscin has been shown to play important roles in suppression of osteoclast maturation. It is proposed as a potential natural product for the treatment of osteoclast-related diseases. We hypothesized in this study that treatment of dioscin on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) could increase the osteo-chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs and promote endochondral ossification of BMSCs in bone fracture environment. BMSCs were extracted from femur and tibia of male C57b mice. Stemness of BMSCs was studied by performing proliferation assay and multilineage differentiation. Glycosaminoglycans (GAG) and collagen contents were assessed to examine the chondrogenesis of BMSCs. Real time quantitative PCR was carried out to examine the expression of hypertrophic marker collagen type X. Efficacy of Dioscin was then tested in mouse bone fracture model on the distal side of femur. Results showed treatment of dioscin on BMSCs increased chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs as well as the expression of collagen type X. Local delivery of dioscin promoted endochondral ossification at bone fractured site, as shown by histological examination. Results of immunohistochemistry showed that dioscin increased collagen type X expression in bone facture model of mice. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that treatment of dioscin promote the hypertrophic differentiation of BMSCs derived chondrocytes. Dioscin could be a useful drug to promote bone regeneration after fracture.