Efficient osteogenic differentiation and bone formation from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) should have clinical applications in treating nonunion fracture healing. MSCs are adherent bone marrow stromal cells that can self-renew and differentiate into osteogenic, chondrogenic, adipogenic, and myogenic lineages. We have identified bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP-9) as one of the most osteogenic BMPs. Here we investigate the effect of insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2) on BMP-9-induced bone formation. We have found that endogenous IGF-2 expression is low in MSCs. Expression of IGF-2 can potentiate BMP-9-induced early osteogenic marker alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and the expression of later markers. IGF-2 has been shown to augment BMP-9-induced ectopic bone formation in the stem cell implantation assay. In perinatal limb explant culture assay, IGF-2 enhances BMP-9-induced endochondral ossification, whereas IGF-2 itself can promote the expansion of the hypertropic chondrocyte zone of the cultured limb explants. Expression of the IGF antagonists IGFBP3 and IGFBP4 leads to inhibition of the IGF-2 effect on BMP-9-induced ALP activity and matrix mineralization. Mechanistically, IGF-2 is further shown to enhance the BMP-9-induced BMPR-Smad reporter activity and Smad1/5/8 nuclear translocation. PI3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY294002 abolishes the IGF-2 potentiation effect on BMP-9-mediated osteogenic signaling and can directly inhibit BMP-9 activity. These results demonstrate that BMP-9 crosstalks with IGF-2 through PI3K/AKT signaling pathway during osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. Taken together, our findings suggest that a combination of BMP-9 and IGF-2 may be explored as an effective bone-regeneration agent to treat large segmental bony defects, nonunion fracture, and/or osteoporotic fracture. © 2010 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are bone marrow stromal cells that can differentiate into multiple lineages. We previously demonstrated that BMP9 is one of the most potent BMPs to induce osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. BMP9 is one of the least studied BMPs. Whereas ALK1, ALK5, and/or endoglin have recently been reported as potential BMP9 type I receptors in endothelial cells, little is known about type I receptor involvement in BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation in MSCs. Here, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of the functional role of seven type I receptors in BMP9-induced osteogenic signaling in MSCs. We have found that most of the seven type I receptors are expressed in MSCs. However, using dominant-negative mutants for the seven type I receptors, we demonstrate that only ALK1 and ALK2 mutants effectively inhibit BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation in vitro and ectopic ossification in MSC implantation assays. Protein fragment complementation assays demonstrate that ALK1 and ALK2 directly interact with BMP9. Likewise, RNAi silencing of ALK1 and ALK2 expression inhibits BMP9-induced BMPR-Smad activity and osteogenic differentiation in MSCs both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, our results strongly suggest that ALK1 and ALK2 may play an important role in mediating BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation. These findings should further aid us in understanding the molecular mechanism through which BMP9 regulates osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs),2 representing a very small fraction of the total population of nucleated cells in bone marrow are adherent marrow stromal cells that can self-renew and differentiate into osteogenic, chondrogenic, adipogenic, and myogenic lineages (1-4). Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), members of the TGF␤ superfamily, play an important role in stem cell biology (5, 6) and function to regulate cell proliferation and differentiation during development (7, 8). Several BMPs have been shown to regulate osteoblast differentiation and subsequent bone formation (3, 4, 7-9) and genetic disruptions of these factors have resulted in various skeletal and extraskeletal abnormalities during development (9, 10). We have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the osteogenic activity of 14 human BMPs and demonstrated that BMP9 is one of the most potent BMPs in promoting osteogenic differentiation of MSCs (3,11,12). We also demonstrated that osteogenic BMP9 regulates a distinct set of downstream targets in MSCs (13-16).BMP9 (a.k.a., GDF2) was originally identified from fetal mouse liver cDNA libraries, and is a relatively uncharacterized member of the BMP family (17). BMP9 is highly expressed in the developing mouse liver, and recombinant human BMP9 stimulates hepatocyte proliferation (17,18). It has been reported that BMP9 may play role in regulating glucose and iron homeostasis in liver (19,20). BMP9 has been shown to be a potent synergistic factor for hematopoietic progenitor generation and colony formation (21) and may play a role in the induction and main...

Promoting osteogenic differentiation and efficacious bone regeneration have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of orthopaedic and musculoskeletal disorders. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are bone marrow progenitor cells that have the capacity to differentiate along osteogenic, chondrogenic, myogenic, and adipogenic lineages. Differentiation along these lineages is a tightly controlled process that is in part regulated by the Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs). BMPs 2 and 7 have been approved for clinical use because their osteoinductive properties act as an adjunctive treatment to surgeries where bone healing is compromised. BMP-9 is one of the least studied BMPs, and recent in vitro and in vivo studies have identified BMP-9 as a potent inducer of osteogenic differentiation in MSCs. BMP-9 exhibits significant molecular cross-talk with the Wnt/ β-catenin and other signaling pathways, and adenoviral expression of BMP-9 in MSCs increases the expression of osteogenic markers and induces trabecular bone and osteiod matrix formation. Furthermore, BMP-9 has been shown to act synergistically in bone formation with other signaling pathways, including Wnt/ β-catenin, IGF, and retinoid signaling pathways. These results suggest that BMP-9 should be explored as an effective bone regeneration agent, especially in combination with adjuvant therapies, for clinical applications such as large segmental bony defects, non-union fractures, and/or spinal fusions.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells which reside in many tissues and can give rise to multiple lineages including bone, cartilage and adipose. Although MSCs have attracted significant attention for basic and translational research, primary MSCs have limited life span in culture which hampers MSCs' broader applications. Here, we investigate if mouse mesenchymal progenitors can be conditionally immortalized with SV40 large T antigen and maintain long-term cell proliferation without compromising their multipotency. Using the system which expresses SV40 large T antigen flanked with Cre/loxP sites, we demonstrate that mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) can be efficiently immortalized by SV40 large T antigen. The conditionally immortalized MEFs (iMEFs) exhibit an enhanced proliferative activity and maintain long-term cell proliferation, which can be reversed by Cre recombinase. The iMEFs express most MSC markers and retain multipotency as they can differentiate into osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic lineages under appropriate differentiation conditions in vitro and in vivo . The removal of SV40 large T reduces the differentiation potential of iMEFs possibly due to the decreased progenitor expansion. Furthermore, the iMEFs are apparently not tumorigenic when they are subcutaneously injected into athymic nude mice. Thus, the conditionally immortalized iMEFs not only maintain long-term cell proliferation but also retain the ability to differentiate into multiple lineages. Our results suggest that the reversible immortalization strategy using SV40 large T antigen may be an efficient and safe approach to establishing long-term cell culture of primary mesenchymal progenitors for basic and translational research, as well as for potential clinical applications.