Abstract:

Abstract:Objective To study the influence of tripterygium glycosides (LGTDG) in the bone morphogenetic protein(BMP) signal transduction pathway and BMP-2 expression,and to clarify the mechanism of anti-ankylosing spondylitis (AS) ossification of LGTDG.Methods The in vitro 　cultured AS fibroblasts were divided into control group and 0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0 mg/L LGTDG groups.The alkaline  phosphatase (ALP) activities of the cells and optimal drug concentrations in various groups were detected;CCK-8 assay was used to detect the proliferation rate of the cells in 1.0 mg/L LGTDG group;the biochemical tests were performed to quantitatively detect the BMP-2 expression levels in control group and 1.0 mg/L LGTDG group;Western blotting method was used to determine the    BMP-2 and Cbfal protein expressions.Results The ALP activities in LGTDG groups were lower than that in control group, especially in 1.0  mg/L LGTDG group (P<0.01).The CCK-8 assay results showed that the proliferation rate of  AS fibroblasts in 1.0 mg?L-1LGTDG group was significantly low than  that in control group(P<0.01),the proliferation rate reached the peak at the 4th day  after LGTDG treatment and entered into the plateau phase,then the proliferation rate of the cells was decreased.The biochemical assay and Western blotting results indicated that the protein expression levels of BMP-2 in 1.0 mg/L LGTDG group was significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.01).Conclusion LGTDG can effectively inhibit the BMP-2 expression in AS fibroblasts and delay the cells to differentiate into the osteoblasts and lead to AS ossification by BMP signal transduction pathway.

Key words: tripterygium glycosides, ankylosing spondylitis, bone morphogenetic protein-2, fibroblasts