eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2025 #These authors contributed equally to this study and should be considered first authors-07-14 13 7 232 239 10.12691/jfnr-13-7-1 JFNR20251371 article Hyun Sook Lee 1 Jae In Jung 2 Seungtae Lim 3 YoungSun Jang 4 Eun Ji Kim myej44@naver.com 4 4 Department of Food & Nutrition, Dongseo University, Busan, Korea Industry Coupled Cooperation Center for Bio Healthcare Materials, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea Research Institute, SRE Service Co., Ltd., Chuncheon, Korea Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Korea FSG-CA is a mixture of Centella asiatica extract and Portulaca oleracea extract. In previous in vitro studies, FSG-CA was shown to enhance osteoblastic activity. In this study, we investigated the effect of FSG-CA on longitudinal bone growth in vivo. Male adolescent SD rats were divided into four groups and administered FSG-CA (50 or 100 mg/kg BW/day), recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH, positive control), or vehicle (control) for 5 weeks. Longitudinal bone growth rate was measured using tetracycline labeling. Growth plate (GP) height was measured using hematoxylin and eosin staining. Serum GH, insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, and IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-3 concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In the liver, mRNA expression of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 was analyzed by RT-PCR. IGF-1 and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2 in the tibial GP were analyzed by immunofluorescence staining. Oral administration of FSG-CA significantly increased endochondral bone formation and proliferation and tibial GP height. FSG-CA increased IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 mRNA expression in the liver and increased IGF-1 concentration in serum. FSG-CA also upregulated IGF-1 and BMP-2 expression in the tibial GP. These results suggest that FSG-CA may help increase longitudinal bone growth during puberty by utilizing the GH - IGF-1 pathway. https://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/13/7/1/jfnr-13-7-1.pdf Centella asiatica Portulaca oleracea longitudinal bone growth growth plate IGF-1