Apocynin suppression of NADPH oxidase reverses the aging process in mesenchymal stem cells to promote osteogenesis and increase bone mass.

Because of the reduced potential for osteogenesis in aging bone marrow stromal cells, the balance of bone metabolism becomes disrupted, leading to various bone diseases. An increase in reactive oxygen species has been determined to be one of the key factors that accelerates the aging process in BMSCs. In these cells, increased expression of NADPH oxidases is the major source of ROS. In the current study, we suppressed the expression of NOX using apocynin, an effective antioxidant and free radical scavenger, and the results showed that aging BMSCs exhibited an enhanced potential for osteogenesis. The expression of potential key targets influencing this reversal was evaluated using qRT-PCR, and the expression of p53 was shown to be reduced with the suppression of NOX. We speculate that this may be one of the major reasons for the reversal of the aging process. We also examined the effect of apocynin in vivo, and the results showed that in SAMP6 mice, bone mineral density and total bone volume were increased after 3 months of apocynin treatment. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that in aging BMSCs, suppression of NADPH oxidase by apocynin partially reverses the aging process and enhances osteogenic potential.