老年婦女骨質疏鬆症在我國是最常見的疾病。依據世界衛生組織對骨質疏鬆症的定義：「為一種全身骨骼疾病，其特徵是骨量減少，骨組織在顯微鏡下觀察結構變差，造成骨骼脆弱，提高了骨折危險性」。其中女性患者以停經後併發骨質疏鬆為多數。骨質疏鬆症最常見的治療方法是雌激素替代療法，雌激素治療會引起嚴重的副作用，所以尋求有效且安全性高無副作用的替代療法為現今當務之急。 由文獻得知，前胸腺素具有調節免疫功能的生物活性。亦是一種核蛋白，具有促進細胞增加的作用。此外前胸腺素(Prothymosin alpha)能與p8結合下阻斷凋亡小體的形成達「抑制細胞凋亡」。成骨細胞凋亡乃是病發骨質疏鬆症的主因之一，且根據研究顯示前胸腺素具有抗凋亡之功能。 本研究以小鼠摘除卵巢誘發骨質疏鬆症後，以前胸線素(Prothymosin alpha)持續10週的治療，利用微電腦斷層掃描分析骨小樑數據變化，結果小鼠脛骨之骨體積比、骨小樑數量、骨小樑厚度有增加、骨小樑分離度有減少趨勢。因此前胸線素(Prothymosin alpha)可以用來防止停經後骨質疏鬆症的評估。 Osteoporosis is the most common disease among the elderly female in our country. According to World Health Organization (WHO), the definition of osteoporosis is a systemic disease that causes the gradual loss of bone density, where decreases bone strength and increases the risk of a broken bone. There is a direct relationship between woman menopause and the development of osteoporosis. The most common method for treatment of osteoporosis is to administer estrogen for preventing bone mass loss and alleviating physiological discomfort after menopause. However, medication may cause some serious side effects. Therefore, we need to seek alternative therapies for preventing those side effects. According to the recent studies, prothymosin-alpha has been found to enhance cell-mediated immunity prothymosin-alpha is also a nucleoprotein and plays vital role in cell reproduction. Prothymosin-alpha binds P8 to form a complex and acts to exert an anti-apoptotic function. Administration of prothymosin-alpha is a promising treatment in cardiovascular diseases, but its application on osteoporosis is still unexpected. We aim to determine the potential therapeutic wage of prothymosin-alpha in osteoporosis treatment. Micro-computered tomography (CT) analysis were performed to verify microstructure changes in tibia. Compared with bone volume fraction, trabecular thickness, trabecular and trabecular to identify a potential therapeutic approaches for further studies. In this study we simulated of postmenopausal osteoporosis after ten weeks injection of prothymosin-alpha then we used Micro-computered tomography to analyze data variation. The results showed Bone Volume in Tissue Volume, Trabecular Number, Trabecular Thickness. Trabecular Separation revealed slightly deterioration, therefore. Prothymosin could retard postmenopausal osteoporosis.
