Aim To investigate whether D-galactose cause osteoporosis and the difference compared with the osteoporosis induced by ovariectomy, and to deter-mine whether ovariectomy coupled with D-galactose ac-celerated the progress of osteoporosis and whether es-trogen had a preventive effect on these osteoporosis models. Methods Sixty SPF mice were randomly divided into six groups , namely sham-operated group, D-galactose group, OVX group, OVX + D-galactose group, OVX + D-galactose + diethylstilbestrol group and D-galactose + diethylstilbestrol group. Seventy days later, the right tibia was processed with undecal-cified sections for bone histomorphometric analysis. Results Compared with the sham-operated group, %Tb. Ar, Tb. Th and Tb. N decrease by 50. 4%, 25. 4%, 50. 9% ( P <0.01 ) respectively, Tb. Sp in-creased by 169. 4% (P <0.05), Oc. pm, Oc. No. ,%Oc. S, Oc. N/mm which reflected bone absorption significantly increased ( P < 0.01 ) , and % L. Pm, MAR, BFR/TV, BFR/BV, BFR/BS which reflected bone formation significantly decreased ( P <0.01 ) in OVX group. %Tb. Ar decreased by 30. 4% in D-ga-lactose group, but there was no statistically significant difference. However, the four parameters reflected the bone absorption in D-galactose group increased signifi-cantly ( P<0.05 ) , while the four parameters reflected bone formation decreased significantly ( P < 0.05 ) . OVX+D-galactose group has obvious performance of osteoporosis, but there was no significant difference compared to OVX group, nor to D-galactose group. Estrogen had significant preventive effect on related pa-rameters of osteoporosis induced by D-galactose and o-variectomy coupled with D-galactose. ConclusionsOsteoporosis model of mice can be established by OVX, D-galactose and OVX +D-galactose. Estrogen can effectively prevent bone loss induced by D-galac-tose and OVX+ D-galactose.

Aim To investigate the effects of red yeast rice capsules containing coenzyme Q10 on femur with an animal model of osteoporosis, which was induced by OVX with D-galactose in rats, and the results were compared with those obtained from diethylstilbestrol. Methods Three-month old female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham group ( CON ) , ovariectomized group ( OVX ) , model group ( MOD ) , diethylstilbestrol group( DES) , and red yeast rice cap-sule group( RYR) . After 60 days, the left femurs were collected for Ca, P and hyp measurement, while the right femurs were performed with three-point bending test and micro-CT evaluation, respectively. Results Compared with CON group, MOD group had a signifi-cant increase in body weight, Tb. Sp, SMI and signifi-cant decrease in maximum load, stiffness, maximum strength, break strength, elastic modulus, Ca, P, Hyp contents and indicators of BV/TV, Tb. N, BMD, Conn-Dens. On the other hand, compared with MOD group, RYR group had a lower body weight and all bone biomechanics indexes were increased without sta-tistically significant difference. At the same time, the content of Ca, P and indicators of BV/TV, Tb. N, Tb. Th, BMD, Conn-Dens increased significantly;yet Tb. Sp decreased significantly. In DES group, the results of indicators were consistent with those for RYR group. In addition, compared with DES group, in RYR group body weight decreased significantly;the content of Ca, P and indicators of BV/TV, Tb. N, Tb. Th, Conn-Dens were significantly higher, and Tb. Sp, SMI were significantly lower. Conclusions Significant bone loss and deteriorated mechanical properties of femur can be observed in animal model of osteoporosis induced by OVX combined with D-galactose. Red yeast rice cap-sules containing coenzyme Q10 show effective prevention effects. Furthermore, red yeast rice capsules(0. 5 tab-let·kg-1 ) have better effect on increasing the number of trabecular bone than diethylstilbestrol ( 30 μg · kg-1 ) does.