Abstract
Osteoporosis is one of the major metabolic bone diseases and is among the most challenging
noncommunicable diseases to treat. Although there is an increasing interest in identifying
bioactive molecules for the prevention and management of osteoporosis, such studies principally
focus only on differentiation and mineralization of osteoblasts or inhibition of osteoclast
activity. Stimulation of osteoblast migration must be a promising osteoanabolic strategy for
improved metabolic bone disease therapy. In this study, we show that an anthraquinone
derivative, aurantio-obtusin, stimulated chemotactic migration of MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells in a
concentration-dependent manner. The use of a real-time chemotaxis analyzing system, TAXIScan,
facilitated the evaluation of both velocity and directionality of osteoblast migration in
response to the compound. Besides migration, the compound stimulated osteoblast differentiation
and mineralization. Taken together, the data presented in this paper demonstrate that
aurantio-obtusin is a promising osteoanabolic compound of natural origin with potential
therapeutic applications in the prevention of osteoporosis and other metabolic bone
diseases.
Key words
aurantio-obtusin - TAXIScan - chemotaxis - osteoblast migration - differentiation - mineralization