LAUSR

Bone remodeling is a dynamic and continuous process that maintains bone health through a tight coupling between the activity of bone-forming osteoblasts and bone-resorbing osteoclasts (Drissi & Sanjay, 2016). An imbalance in this remodeling process may lead to weak bone formation which ultimately results in osteoporosis, one of the most common skeletal diseases characterized by reduced bone mineral density (BMD) and deteriorated bone microstructure (Cauley, 2017). Osteoporotic fractures are a serious health problem that affects approximately 140 million women and 20 million men worldwide (aged 50 or older), usually followed by hospitalization, impaired quality of life, disability and even death (Li et al., 2017). Due to the increased life expectancy, osteoporosis has become a severe socio-economic issue and a major public health problem (Odén et al., 2015; Sözen et al., 2017). Thus, the need for prevention of osteoporosis has been receiving increasing attention globally than ever. As side effects of current therapeutic agents have been reported, some alternative protective and preventive methods are highly desirable, especially the use of safe bioactive substances with osteogenic effects (Huang et al., 2015).