Possible therapeutic potential of berberine in diabetic osteopathy

Diabetic osteopathy is a complication that leads to decreased bone mineral density, bone formation and having high risk of fractures that heals slowly. Diabetic osteopathy is a result of increase in osteoclastogenesis and decrease in osteoblastogenesis. Various factors viz., oxidative stress, increased inflammatory markers, PPAR-γ activation in osteoblast, activation of apoptotic pathway, increased glucose levels and inhibitory effect on parathyroid hormone etc. are mainly responsible for decreased bone mineral density. Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid widely used in Asian countries as a traditional medicine. Berberine is extensively reported to be an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and having potential to treat diabetic complications and glucocorticoid induced osteoporosis. The osteoclastogenesis decreasing property of berberine can be hypothesized for inhibiting diabetic osteopathy. In addition, chronic treatment of berberine will be helpful for increasing the osteoblastic activity and expression of the modulators that affect osteoblastic differentiation. The apoptotic pathways stimulated due to increased inflammatory markers and nucleic acid damages could be reduced due to berberine. Another important consideration that berberine is having stimulatory effect on glucagon like peptide release and insulin sensitization that will be helpful for decreasing glucose levels and therefore, may exerts osteogenesis. Thiazolidinediones show bone loss due to activation of PPAR-γ in osteoblasts, whereas berberine stimulates PPAR-γ only in adipocytes and not in osteoblasts, and therefore the decreased bone loss due to use of thiazolidinediones may not be observed in berberine treatment conditions. Berberine decreases the advanced glycation end-products (AGE) formation in diabetic condition which will be ultimately helpful to decrease the stiffness of collagen fibers due to AGE-induced cross linking. Lastly, it is also reported that berberine has inhibitory effect on parathyroid hormone and enhances marker genes like osteocalcin, which are responsible for the osteoblastic activity. From these evidences, we hypothesized that berberine may have potential in the treatment of diabetic osteopathy.