Icariin: does it have an osteoinductive potential for bone tissue engineering?

Traditional Chinese medicines have been recommended for bone regeneration and repair for thousands of years. Currently, the Herba Epimedii and its multi-component formulation are the attractive native herbs for the treatment of osteoporosis. Icariin, a typical flavonol glycoside, is considered to be the main active ingredient of the Herba Epimedii from which icariin has been successfully extracted. Most interestingly, it has been reported that icariin can be delivered locally by biomaterials and that it has an osteoinductive potential for bone tissue engineering. This review focuses on the performance of icariin in bone tissue engineering and on blending the information from icariin with the current knowledge relevant to molecular mechanisms and signal pathways. The osteoinductive potential of icariin could be attributed to its multiple functions in the musculoskeletal system which is involved in the regulation of multiple signaling pathways in anti-osteoporosis, osteogenesis, anti-osteoclastogenesis, chondrogenesis, angiogenesis, and anti-inflammation. The osteoinductive potential and the low price of icariin make it a very attractive candidate as a substitute of osteoinductive protein-bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), or as a promoter for enhancing the therapeutic effects of BMPs. However, the effectiveness of the local delivery of icariin needs to be investigated further.