No abstract

Sclerostin decreases bone mass by antagonizing the Wnt signaling pathway. We examined whether obesity-induced bone loss is associated with the expression of sclerostin. Five-week-old male mice were assigned to one of two groups (n = 10 each) and fed either a control diet (10% kcal from fat; CON) or a high-fat diet (60% kcal from fat; HF) for 12 weeks. Thex final body weight and whole body fat mass of the HF mice were higher than those of the CON mice. The distal femur cancellous bone mineral density and bone formation rate was lower in HF mice than in CON mice. The percent erosion surface was higher in the HF mice than the CON mice. The serum levels and femoral osteocytic protein expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were significantly higher in HF mice than in CON mice. Sclerostin mRNA levels and osteocytic sclerostin protein levels in femoral cortex were also higher in HF mice than in CON mice. Sclerostin expression in MLO-Y4 osteocytes increased with TNF-α treatment, and TNF-α-induced sclerostin expression was blocked by the inhibition of NF-κB activation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and a luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that NF-κB directly binds to the NF-κB binding elements on the mouse sost promoter and stimulates sclerostin expression. These results support a model in which, in the context of obesity or other inflammatory diseases that increase the production of TNF-α, TNF-α upregulates the expression of sclerostin through NF-κB signaling pathway, thus contributing to bone loss.

We concluded that our new finding with the mechanical osteotomy suggests a biological explanation to the expected difference in subsequent bone healing. Our hypothesis is that the difference of surface characteristic yields to different bleeding pattern and subsequently results in different bone healing. The analyses of bone healing will support our hypothesis.

MicroRNAs are novel key regulators of cellular differentiation. Dlx transcription factors play an important role in osteoblast differentiation, and Dlx5 and Dlx2 are known targets of miR-124. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the regulatory effects of miR-124 on the osteogenic differentiation and in vivo bone formation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). During osteogenic induction by BMP2, the expression levels of miR-124 were inversely correlated with those of osteogenic differentiation marker genes in human and mouse bone marrow-derived MSCs, MC3T3-E1 cells and C2C12 cells. The overexpression of a miR-124 mimic significantly decreased the expression levels of Dlx5, Dlx3, and Dlx2, whereas the silencing of miR-124 with hairpin inhibitors significantly increased the expression of these Dlx genes. Luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that miR-124 directly targets the 3'UTRs of Dlx3, Dlx5, and Dlx2. The overexpression of a miR-124 mimic suppressed the osteogenic marker gene expression levels, alkaline phosphatase activity and matrix mineralization, which were all significantly increased by the overexpression of a miR-124 inhibitor. When ectopic bone formation was induced by the subcutaneous transplantation of human bone marrow-derived MSCs in nude mice, MSCs overexpressing a miR-124 inhibitor significantly enhanced woven bone formation compared with control MSCs. However, MSCs overexpressing a miR-124 mimic exhibited increased adipocyte differentiation at the expense of ectopic bone formation. These results suggest that miR-124 is a negative regulator of osteogenic differentiation and in vivo bone formation and that the targeting of Dlx5, Dlx3, and Dlx2 genes partly contributes to this inhibitory effect exerted by miR-124.