Puerarin Promotes Tibial Shaft Fracture Healing in Rats and its Relationship with BMP-Smad Pathway

Background Fracture healing involves multiple growth factors and the interaction between multiple signaling pathways. Pue (puerarin) is a natural compound with multiple biological activities, but its effect on fracture healing and its relationship with the bone morphogenic protein (BMP)-Smad pathway is not yet clear. Objectives This study intends to assess the effect of puerarin on fracture healing. Materials and Methods Seventy rats were used for the study to establish a tibial shaft fracture rat model. The experimental rats were divided into a tibial fracture group, Pue dose group (low, medium, and high), BMP-2 group, Noggin group, Pue + SY-LB-35 group, and Pue + Noggin group through the random number method. We observed the fracture healing through micro-CT and histology, observed the tibial stump tissue with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, and detected the expression of genes related to the BMP-Smad pathway through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and Western blot. Results We found that puerarin can promote tibial shaft fracture healing in rats in a dose-dependent manner; through micro-CT and histological analysis, we observed increased trabecular bone formation during fracture healing in rats treated with puerarin. Callus formation is accelerated, and bone density increases. In addition, puerarin also significantly increased the expression of genes related to the BMP-Smad pathway, including BMP2, Smad1, Smad5, and so on. Conclusion Puerarin can promote tibial shaft fracture healing in rats, and its mechanism is related to upregulating the expression of genes related to the BMP-Smad pathway. It further improves the fracture-healing mechanism and provides candidate drugs for the treatment of tibial shaft fracture healing in clinical medicine.