title: Effect of Urocortin on strength and microarchitecture of osteopenic rat femur.
abstract: As yet there is no evidence of the potential antiosteoporotic effect of Urocortin-1 (UCN), a corticotropin releasing factor related peptide, in vivo. In this study, and for the first time, we investigated the effect of UCN in a rat osteopenia model. Sixty female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 5 groups: (1) sham-operated, (2) untreated ovariectomized (OVX) rats, (3) and (4) OVX animals treated for 5 weeks with daily subcutaneous low-dose UCN (3 μg/kg of BW) or high-dose UCN (30 μg/kg of BW) 8 weeks after ovariectomy, and (5) OVX rats treated with daily estrogen (0.2 mg/kg of BW p.o) 8 weeks after ovariectomy for 5 weeks (E). After sacrifice, the femurs were reserved for biomechanical, histomorphometric and ash testing. In the biomechanical test, the high-dose UCN rats showed significantly improved mechanical stiffness (341.6 N/mm) compared with the untreated OVX animals (275.9 N/mm). In the histomorphometric evaluation, the high-dose UCN rats demonstrated an improved trabecular microarchitecture especially and significantly at the distal femur (distal femur Tb.Ar = 41.4% and N.Nd/mm(2) = 26.8, proximal femur Tb.Ar = 71.8% and N.Nd/mm(2) = 28.7) compared with untreated OVX rats (distal femur Tb.Ar = 23.3% and N.Nd/mm(2) = 11.7, proximal femur Tb.Ar = 60.2% and N.Nd/mm(2) = 25.2). Our results show that short-term treatment with UCN seems to have a positive effect on the metaphyseal bone structure and strength of the femur in ovariectomized rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery, Georg-August-University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany, mtezval@med.uni-goettingen.de.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tezval
authors.forename: Silja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schmelz
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Komrakova
authors.forename: Klaus Michael
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Stuermer
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sehmisch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000187:drug effects; D001851:Bone Diseases, Metabolic / Q000188:drug therapy; D004967:Estrogens / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000187:drug effects*; D010052:Ovariectomy / Q000379:methods; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D054832:Urocortins / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D004967:Estrogens; D054832:Urocortins