Research Article Evaluating the Bone Tissue Regeneration Capability of the Chinese Herbal Decoction Danggui Buxue Tang from a Molecular Biology Perspective Wen-Ling Wang, 1,2 Shi-Yuan Sheu, 1,3,4 Yueh-Sheng Chen, 1,5 Shung-Te Kao, 1,2 Yuan-Tsung Fu, 1,6 Tzong-Fu Kuo, 7 Kuo-Yu Chen, 8 and Chun-Hsu Yao 1,5,9 1 School of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan 2 Department of Chinese Internal Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40402, Taiwan 3 School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan 4 Department of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40201, Taiwan 5 Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, Taichung 40202, Taiwan 6 Department of Chinese Medicine, Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital, Te Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taichung 40427, Taiwan 7 Department of Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan 8 Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan 9 Department of Biomedical Informatics, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan Correspondence should be addressed to Kuo-Yu Chen; chenkuo@yuntech.edu.tw and Chun-Hsu Yao; chyao@mail.cmu.edu.tw Received 23 May 2014; Accepted 21 August 2014; Published 11 September 2014 Academic Editor: Wan-Liang Lu Copyright © 2014 Wen-Ling Wang et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Large bone defects are a considerable challenge to reconstructive surgeons. Numerous traditional Chinese herbal medicines have been used to repair and regenerate bone tissue. Tis study investigated the bone regeneration potential of Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT), a Chinese herbal decoction prepared from Radix Astragali (RA) and Radix Angelicae Sinensis (RAS), from a molecular biology perspective. Te optimal ratio of RA and RAS used in DBT for osteoblast culture was obtained by colorimetric and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assays. Moreover, the optimal concentration of DBT for bone cell culture was also determined by colorimetric, ALP activity, nodule formation, Western blotting, wound-healing, and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase activity assays. Consequently, the most appropriate weight ratio of RA to RAS for the proliferation and diferentiation of osteoblasts was 5 : 1. Moreover, the most efective concentration of DBT was 1,000 g/mL, which signifcantly increased the number of osteoblasts, intracellular ALP levels, and nodule numbers, while inhibiting osteoclast activity. Additionally, 1,000 g/mL of DBT was able to stimulate p-ERK and p-JNK signal pathway. Terefore, DBT is highly promising for use in accelerating fracture healing in the middle or late healing periods. 1. Introduction Bone injuries are commonly caused by trauma, infection, diseases, or tumor removal. Clinically, bone begins to repair itself within weeks following injury and lasts for months. Te healing process includes three stages: infammation, repair, and remodeling. Bone remodeling is dynamically equilibrated by bone-forming osteoblasts and bone-resorbing osteoclasts for several months up to 1 year. Bone mineral- ization generally allows more time to proceed with heal- ing in order to comply with changing skeletal growth for mechanical requirements. Many clinical and animal studies have demonstrated that traditional Chinese medicines have benefcial therapeutic efects on bone fracture healing [1– 4]. Terefore, the biochemical efects of traditional Chinese medicines using an in vitro bone cell culture model have received considerable attention [5–7]. Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT), a Chinese herbal decoction consisting of Huangqi (Radix Astragali, RA) and Danggui (Radix Angelicae Sinensis, RAS) with a weight ratio of 5 : 1, is widely used for menopausal women to nourish qi and blood. According to recent pharmacological studies, DBT Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2014, Article ID 853234, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/853234