Saponin derived from natural extracts can alleviate muscle atrophy. Dioscorea nipponica Makino (DNM) is commonly used in herbal medicine and contains various steroidal saponins, although its efficacy and mechanisms of action for treating muscle atrophy remain unknown. Here, differentiated myoblast cells treated with DNM showed increased MyoD and MyoG expression and effectively promoted muscle formation. DNM effectively inhibited muscle atrophy induced by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) monotherapy, and combination treatment with protodioscin and protogracillin (among the tested DNM constituents) showed a synergistic effect on differentiated myoblast cells. DNM and this combination repressed TNFα-induced increased MuRF1 and Atrogin1/MAFbx expression by inhibiting nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) expression. DNM also effectively promoted the recovery of muscle formation in injured mice. Therefore, DNM and its multi-constituents can potentially be used as therapeutic agents for muscle-related diseases and represent prospective food supplements.

来自天然提取物的皂苷可以减轻肌肉萎缩。薯Makino（DNM）通常用于草药，并且包含各种甾体皂苷，尽管其治疗肌肉萎缩的功效和作用机制仍未知。在这里，用DNM处理的分化成肌细胞显示MyoD和MyoG表达增加，并有效促进肌肉形成。DNM有效抑制了肿瘤坏死因子α（TNFα）单药治疗诱导的肌肉萎缩，并且与原薯dio皂甙元和原皂草素（在测试的DNM成分中）联合治疗对分化的成肌细胞具有协同作用。DNM和该组合通过抑制核因子-κB（NF-κB）的表达来抑制TNFα诱导的MuRF1和Atrogin1 / MAFbx表达的增加。DNM还可以有效促进受伤小鼠肌肉形成的恢复。因此，