Effects of Extracts from Trifolium medium L. and Trifolium pratense L. on Development of Estrogen Deficiency-Induced Osteoporosis in Rats

Table 1

Effects of Trifolium medium L. (TM) and Trifolium pratense L. (TP) extracts on the body mass gain, mass of estrogen-dependent organs, and serum levels of estradiol and total cholesterol in ovariectomized (OVX) rats.

Parameters	Sham-; operated rats	OVX rats
		Control	TM10	TM20	TP10	TP20	Estradiol
Final body mass (g)	234.8; ± 3.6	263.1; ± 4.5***	268.3; ± 4.2***	274.8; ± 4.8***	263.9; ± 3.9***	265.2; ± 4.6***	250.6; ± 5.0*
Body mass gain after 28 days (g)	16.5; ± 2.4	39.0; ± 2.5***	42.1; ± 2.3***	43.8; ± 3.6***	38.3; ± 2.0***	40.7; ± 3.3***	25.6; ± 2.9^* ●●
Uterus mass (mg/100 g of body mass)	235.66; ± 27.70	35.09; ± 1.81***	35.64; ± 1.60***	36.03; ± 1.41***	39.39; ± 1.67***	37.19; ± 1.79***	67.31; ± 4.89^*** ●●●
Thymus mass (mg/100 g of body mass)	130.07; ± 11.12	196.83; ± 9.25**	203.63; ± 21.41**	199.37; ± 9.66***	201.27; ± 13.81**	196.57; ± 11.35*	181.74; ± 15.74**
Total cholesterol; (mg/100 mL)	49.93; ± 2.90	69.11; ± 2.83***	68.88; ± 3.61***	65.66; ± 2.62**	68.23; ± 3.17***	66.13; ± 3.30**	56.19; ± 3.81^●
Estradiol (pg/mL)	20.64; ± 3.05	10.37; ± 0.80*	9.83; ± 0.63**	11.68; ± 0.61	9.34; ± 0.44**	10.95; ± 1.07*	13.84; ± 1.26

The lyophilized extracts from TM or TP at doses corresponding to 10 and 20 mg/kg of isoflavone aglycones daily (TM10, TP10 and TM20, TP20, resp.), or estradiol (0.2 mg/kg daily), were administered orally to OVX rats for 4 weeks. Results are presented as the mean ± SEM (𝑛=9-10). One-way ANOVA followed by Duncan’s test or, when appropriate, Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA followed by Mann-Whitney 𝑈 test was used for evaluation of the significance of the results. *𝑃<0.05, **𝑃<0.01, ***𝑃<0.001—significantly different from sham-operated control rats. ^●𝑃<0.05, ^●●𝑃<0.01, ^●●●𝑃<0.001—significantly different from OVX control rats.