A study to resolve the mechanism by which osteoblasts and osteocytes regulate the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26893286
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Morphological basic dentistry
• Research Institution: Nihon University
• Principal Investigator: AKIYAMA Yuko 日本大学, 歯学部, ポスト・ドクトラル・フェロー (90735622)
• Research Collaborator: SHIMIZU Noriyoshi ; HONDA Masaki ; WATANABE Nobukazu ; MIKAMI Yoshikazu
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 骨芽細胞 / 間葉系幹細胞 / ギャップジャンクション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

An analytical study of cell-cell communications between murine osteoblast-like MLO-A5 cells and mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs)-like C3H10T1/2 cells was performed. The mRNA expression levels of several osteogenic transcription factors did not differ between the co-cultured and mono-cultured C3H10T1/2 cells, but those of ALP and BSP were approximately 400-fold higher in the co-cultured cells. Patch clamp and biocytin transfer assays revealed gap junction-mediated communication between co-cultured C3H10T1/2 and MLO-A5 cells. A gap junction inhibitor suppressed the increases in the ALP and BSP mRNA expressions in co-cultured C3H10T1/2 cells. Furthermore, the histone acetylation levels were higher in co-cultured 10T-GFP cells than mono-cultured 10T-GFP cells. These results suggest that osteoblasts and BMSCs associate via gap junctions, and that gap junction-mediated signaling induces histone acetylation that leads to elevated transcription of the genes encoding ALP and BSP in MSCs.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学