Objective To select a reasonable protocol to assess the effect of one health food, a compound of calcium and active ingredients, on strengthening bone density of experimental animals.
Methods With reference to "the method for testing the function of increasing bone density" of the 2003 Technical Standards for Testing and Assessing of Health Food, the bone density test plan 2 combined with the calcium absorption experiment was adopted to assess one health food. According to the recommended dose of the tested compounds, three groups with low, medium and high doses of 0.17, 0.33, 1.00 g/kg were set up separately. At the same time, the adult female SD rats were divided into sham operation control group, ovariectomy (OVX) model group, estradiol positive control group (1.0 mg/kg of estradiol)and calcium carbonate group, adult female SD rats after ovariectom in the bone density test. In the calcium absorption experiment, the weaning SD rats were divided into a control group and a calcium carbonate group.
Results The result of bone density test showed the increase of weight in ovariectomized rats administered at a dose of 1.00 g/kg was significantly lower than that in the model control group (P<0.05); Body mineral density of the midpoint and the distal femur, and the calcium content of the femur in 1.00 g/kg dose group were significantly higher than that in the model control group (P<0.05). Calcium absorption test showed that the body weight, body length, and the apparent absorption of calcium in 1.00g/kg dose group were significantly higher than the low-calcium control group (P<0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the body weight, body length, and the apparent absorption of calcium between 1.00 g/kg dose group and calcium carbonate group of same calcium content (P>0.05).
Conclusion The bone density test combined with calcium absorption experiment showed that this health food could not only increase the bone density in ovariectomized rats, but also supplement the calcium intakes. The study demonstrated that the combined protocol is a more comprehensive approach to assessing these health food with specified function.
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