Figure 4

Effect of mechanical strain, icariin, the combination of mechanical strain and icariin stimulation on expression of BMP-2 and BMP-4. After stimulation of mechanical strain, icariin, the combination of mechanical strain and icariin on MC3T3-E1 cells of 1 h/day for 3 days, the total protein and mRNA of MC3T3-E1 cells were extracted. The mRNA expression of BMP-2 (a), BMP-4 (b) was analyzed by real-time RT-PCR, and the protein expression of BMP-2 (c) was detected by western blot. The β-actin protein was used as internal controls. Optical density analysis (d) was obtained with the Image-Pro Plus version 6.0. Data represent mean ± SD values from three independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (n = 4) compared with control group, ^# P < 0.05, ^## P < 0.01 compared with mechanical strain or icariin stimulation.