Osteoanabolic Effects of Carrot (Daucus carota) Roots on Ovariectomy-Induced Osteoporotic Rats

Abstract

Abstract

Estrogen depletion leads to bone loss (osteoporosis) mostly seen in postmenopausal women and ovariectomized rats. Osteoporosis is a silent disease with high mortality among elderly people. Several therapeutic treatments employed to correct/manage this disease were found to have specific adverse effect. The present study evaluated the effect of Carrot roots (CRT) on some bone remodeling biomarkers and anthropometrics parameters in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Twenty-four (24) female Wistar rats weighing between 115 to 120 g, were Ovariectomized and six (6) were sham operated, the rats were divided into five groups, six rats per group: group one (sham control), group two (OVX untreated control), group three (OVX + 200 mg/kg body weight (b.w) CRT), group four (OVX + 400 mg/kg b.w CRT) and group five (OVX + 5 mg/kg b.w Alendronate) and treated daily for six weeks. The result elucidated that, oral administration of 200 and 400 mg/kg CRT for 6 weeks significantly (P<0.05) reduced over expression of remodeling biomarkers (Osteocalcine, Bone Alkaline Phosphate and RANKL), endometrial atrophy of the uterine histology, and elevated the serum estradiol level of the OVX rats (P<0.05) compared to OVX untreated rats. Moreover, oral administration of CRT for 6 weeks significantly reduced the loss of femur dry weight and femoral thickness of OVX rats. Hence this results suggested bone health benefit of carrot roots.