The Effect of β-Aminopropionitrile on Skeletal Micromorphology and Osteogenesis

Plasma metabolites and inflammatory proteins profiling predict outcome of Fufang Duzhong Jiangu granules treating Kashin-Beck disease

To investigate predictive biomarkers that could be used to identify patients' response to treatment, plasma metabolomics and proteomics analyses were performed in Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) patients treated with Fufang Duzhong Jiangu Granules (FDJG). Plasma was collected from 12 KBD patients before treatment and 1 month after FDJG treatment. LC-MS and olink proteomics were employed for obtaining plasma metabolomics profiling and inflammatory protein profiles. Patients were classified into responders and non-responders based on drug efficacy. Enrichment analyses of differential metabolites and proteins of the responders at baseline and after treatment were conducted to study the mechanism of drug action. Differential metabolites and proteins between the two groups were screened as biomarkers to predict the drug efficacy. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the prediction accuracy of biomarkers. The changes in metabolites and inflammatory proteins in responders after treatment reflected the mechanism of FDJG treatment for KBD, which may act on glycerophospholipid metabolism, d-glutamine and d-glutamate metabolism, nitrogen metabolism and NF-kappa B signaling pathway. Three metabolites were identified as potential predictors: N-undecanoylglycine, β-aminopropionitrile and PC [18:3(6Z,9Z,12Z)/20:4(8Z,11Z,14Z,17Z)]. For inflammatory protein, interleukin-8 was identified as a predictive biomarker to detect responders. Combined use of these four biomarkers had high predictive ability (area under the curve = 0.972).

Collagen cross-link profiles and mineral are different between the mandible and femur with site specific response to perturbed collagen

Compromises to collagen and mineral lead to a decrease in whole bone quantity and quality in a variety of systemic diseases, yet, clinically, disease manifestations differ between craniofacial and long bones. Collagen alterations can occur through post-translational modification via lysyl oxidase (LOX), which catalyzes enzymatic collagen cross-link formation, as well as through non-enzymatic advanced glycation end products (AGEs) such as pentosidine and carboxymethyl-lysine (CML). Characterization of the cross-links and AGEs, and comparison of the mineral and collagen modifications in craniofacial and long bones represent a critical gap in knowledge. However, alterations to either the mineral or collagen in bone may contribute to disease progression and, subsequently, the anatomical site dependence of a variety of diseases. Therefore, we hypothesized that collagen cross-links and AGEs differ between craniofacial and long bones and that altered collagen cross-linking reduces mineral quality in an anatomic location dependent. To study the effects of cross-link inhibition on mineralization between anatomical sites, beta-aminoproprionitrile (BAPN) was administered to rapidly growing, 5-8 week-old male mice. BAPN is a dose-dependent inhibitor of LOX that pharmacologically alters enzymatic cross-link formation. Long bones (femora) and craniofacial bones (mandibles) were compared for mineral quantity and quality, collagen cross-link and AGE profiles, and tissue level mechanics, as well as the response to altered cross-links via BAPN. A highly sensitive liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was developed which allowed for quantification of site-dependent accumulation of the advanced glycation end-product, carboxymethyl-lysine (CML). CML was ∼8.3× higher in the mandible than the femur. The mandible had significantly higher collagen maturation, mineral crystallinity, and Young's modulus, but lower carbonation, than the femur. BAPN also had anatomic specific effects, leading to significant decreases in mature cross-links in the mandible, and an increase in mineral carbonation in the femur. This differential response of both the mineral and collagen composition to BAPN between the mandible and femur highlights the need to further understand how inherent compositional differences in collagen and mineral contribute to anatomic-site specific manifestations of disease in both craniofacial and long bones.

Collagen cross-links scale with passive stiffness in dystrophic mouse muscles, but are not altered with administration of a lysyl oxidase inhibitor

In Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a lack of functional dystrophin leads to myofiber instability and progressive muscle damage that results in fibrosis. While fibrosis is primarily characterized by an accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) components, there are changes in ECM architecture during fibrosis that relate more closely to functional muscle stiffness. One of these architectural changes in dystrophic muscle is collagen cross-linking, which has been shown to increase the passive muscle stiffness in models of fibrosis including the mdx mouse, a model of DMD. We tested whether the intraperitoneal injections of beta-aminopropionitrile (BAPN), an inhibitor of the cross-linking enzyme lysyl oxidase, would reduce collagen cross-linking and passive stiffness in young and adult mdx mice compared to saline-injected controls. We found no significant differences between BAPN treated and saline treated mice in collagen cross-linking and stiffness parameters. However, we observed that while collagen cross-linking and passive stiffness scaled positively in dystrophic muscles, collagen fiber alignment scaled with passive stiffness distinctly between muscles. We also observed that the dystrophic diaphragm showed the most dramatic fibrosis in terms of collagen content, cross-linking, and stiffness. Overall, we show that while BAPN was not effective at reducing collagen cross-linking, the positive association between collagen cross-linking and stiffness in dystrophic muscles still show cross-linking as a viable target for reducing passive muscle stiffness in DMD or other fibrotic muscle conditions.

Effect of bioactive Biosilicate® /F18 glass scaffolds on osteogenic differentiation of human adipose stem cells

This study evaluated the gene expression profile of the human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) grown on the Biosilicate^® /F18 glass (BioS-2P/F18) scaffolds. hASCs were cultured using the osteogenic medium (control), the scaffolds, and their ionic extract. We observed that ALP activity was higher in hASCs grown on the BioS-2P/F18 scaffolds than in hASCs cultured with the ionic extract or the osteogenic medium on day 14. Moreover, the dissolution product group and the control exhibited deposited calcium, which peaked on day 21. Gene expression profiles of cell cultured using the BioS-2P/F18 scaffolds and their extract were evaluated in vitro using the RT² Profiler polymerase chain reaction (PCR) microarray on day 21. Mineralizing tissue-associated proteins, differentiation factors, and extracellular matrix enzyme expressions were measured using quantitative PCR. The gene expression of different proteins involved in osteoblast differentiation was significantly up-regulated in hASCs grown on the scaffolds, especially BMP1, BMP2, SPP1, BMPR1B, ITGA1, ITGA2, ITGB1, SMAD1, and SMAD2, showing that both the composition and topographic features of the biomaterial could stimulate osteogenesis. This study demonstrated that gene expression of hASCs grown on the scaffold surface showed significantly increased gene expression related to hASCs cultured with the ionic extract or the osteogenic medium, evidencing that the BioS-2P/F18 scaffolds have a substantial effect on cellular behavior of hASCs.

COL3A1, COL6A3, and SERPINH1 Are Related to Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis Occurrence According to Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis

Background

Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) represents the most frequently seen type of secondary osteoporosis, a systemic skeleton disorder. Numerous factors are associated with GIOP occurrence, but there are no specific diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers for GIOP so far.

Material/Methods

In this work, gene modules related to GIOP were screened through weighted gene coexpression network analysis. Moreover, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) were carried out for hub genes. In addition, microarray GSE30159 dataset was used as a training set to analyze gene expression within bone biopsy samples from patients with endogenous Cushing’s syndrome with GIOP and from normal controls. GSE129228 was used as the test set for investigating the hub gene involvement within GIOP.

Results

According to our results, the turquoise module showed clinical significance, and 10 genes (COL3A1, POSTN, COL6A3, COL14A1, SERPINH1, ASPN, OGN, THY1, NID2, and TNMD) were discovered to be the “real” hub genes within coexpression as well as PPI networks. GSEA showed that the interaction of extracellular matrix receptors together with the focal adhesion pathway had significant enrichment within samples with high COL3A1 and COL6A3 expression. After the results from both test and training sets were overlapped, SERPINH1 was also significantly altered between GIOP and normal control samples.

Conclusions

COL3A1, COL6A3, and SERPINH1 were identified to be the candidate biomarkers for GIOP.

Transcriptome for the breast muscle of Jinghai yellow chicken at early growth stages

Background

The meat quality of yellow feathered broilers is better than the quality of its production. Growth traits are important in the broiler industry. The exploration of regulation mechanisms for the skeletal muscle would help to increase the growth performance of chickens. At present, some progress has been made by researchers, but the molecular mechanisms of the skeletal muscle still remain unclear and need to be improved.

Methods

In this study, the breast muscles of fast- and slow-growing female Jinghai yellow chickens (F4F, F8F, F4S, F8S) and slow-growing male Jinghai yellow chickens (M4S, M8S) aged four and eight weeks were selected for transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq). All analyses of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and functional enrichment were performed. Finally, we selected nine DEGs to verify the accuracy of the sequencing by qPCR.

Results

The differential gene expression analysis resulted in 364, 219 and 111 DEGs (adjusted P-value ≤ 0.05) for the three comparison groups, F8FvsF4F, F8SvsF4S, and M8SvsM4S, respectively. Three common DEGs (ADAMTS20, ARHGAP19, and Novel00254) were found, and they were all highly expressed at four weeks of age. In addition, some other genes related to growth and development, such as ANXA1, COL1A1, MYH15, TGFB3 and ACTC1, were obtained. The most common DEGs (n = 58) were found between the two comparison groups F8FvsF4F and F8SvsF4S, and they might play important roles in the growth of female chickens. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway also showed some significant enrichment pathways, for instance, extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, cell cycle, and DNA replication. The two pathways that were significantly enriched in the F8FvsF4F group were all contained in that of F8SvsF4S. The same two pathways were ECM–receptor interaction and focal adhesion, and they had great influence on the growth of chickens. However, many differences existed between male and female chickens in regards to common DEGs and KEGG pathways. The results would help to reveal the regulation mechanism of the growth and development of chickens and serve as a guideline to propose an experimental design on gene function with the DEGs and pathways.