RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effect of Quercetin on Preosteoblasts and Bone Defects
R.W.K Wong*, A.B.M Rabie
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 27
Last Page: 32
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-2-27
DOI: 10.2174/1874325000802010027
Article History:
Received Date: 15/2/2008Revision Received Date: 23/2/2008
Acceptance Date: 27/2/2008
Electronic publication date: 10/3/2008
Collection year: 2008

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Quercetin is a flavonol, also a phytoestrogen, available commonly in onion and apple. Our laboratory investigated its effect on MC3T3-E1 cells’ alkaline phosphatase activity in vitro and compared the amount of new bone produced by quercetin in collagen matrix to that produced by bone grafts and collagen matrix in vivo. Four bone defects, 5mm by 10mm were created in the parietal bone of 2 New Zealand White rabbits. In the experimental animal, 2 defects were grafted with quercetin solution mixed with collagen matrix. In the control animal, 2 defects were grafted with collagen matrix alone. Animals were killed on day 14 and the defects were dissected and prepared for histological qualitative assessment. Results showed that 10μM of quercetin increased alkaline phosphatase activity of MC3T3-E1 cells at 72 hours in vitro by 32%. In the experimental animal, there was new bone growing inside the bone defects. In conclusion, specific concentration of quercetin increased alkaline phosphatase activity of MC3T3-E1 cells in vitro and quercetin in collagen matrix has the effect of forming new bone across bone defects in vivo.