Tanshinol Rescues the Impaired Bone Formation Elicited by Glucocorticoid Involved in KLF15 Pathway

Decreased bone formation is responsible for the pathogenesis of glucocorticoid- (GC-) induced osteoporosis (GIO), while the mechanism remains to be elucidated. The aim was to investigate how natural antioxidant tanshinol attenuates oxidative stress and rescues impaired bone formation elicited by GC in Sprague-Dawley rats and in C2C12 cells and/or MC3T3-E1 cells. The results showed that tanshinol prevented bone loss and decreased biomechanical characteristics and suppressed reduction of biomarkers related to osteogenesis in GIO rats. Further study revealed that tanshinol reversed decrease of transcription activity of Osterix-luc and rescued impairment of osteoblastic differentiation and bone formation involved in induction of KLF15 mRNA. Meanwhile, tanshinol diminished inhibition of protein expression of β-catenin and Tcf4 and transcription activity of Tcf4-luc induced by GC, especially under conditions of KLF siRNA in vitro. Additionally, tanshinol attenuated increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, phosphorylation of p66(Shc) expression, TUNEL-positive cells, and caspase-3 activity elicited by KLF15 under conditions of GC. Taken together, the present findings suggest that tanshinol attenuated the decrease of bone formation and bone mass and bone quality elicited by GC involved in KLF15/Wnt signaling transduction and counteracted GC-evoked oxidative stress and subsequent cell apoptosis involved in KLF15/p66(Shc) pathway cascade.