Open Access

ARTICLE

Cyclic biaxial tensile strain enhances osteogenic differentiation in rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells via activating ERα-Wnt3a/β-catenin pathway

by MIN TANG^1,#, XUELING HE^1,2,#, XINGHONG YAO¹, JIRUI WEN¹, MINGYUE BAO¹, LIANG LI^1,*

1 Institute of Biomedical Engineering, School of Preclinical and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China
2 Laboratory Animal Center of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

* Address correspondence to: Liang Li,
# These authors contributed equally to this work

BIOCELL 2022, 46(6), 1465-1472. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.018967

Received 26 August 2021; Accepted 11 October 2021; Issue published 07 February 2022

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the role of estrogen receptor α (ERα) in biaxial tensile strain (BTS) regulated osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs). rBMSCs were derived from rats and overexpressed ERα. The rBMSCs were subjected to BTS at 1 Hz with a strain of 2% for 4 h per day, 3 days, with or without ERα inhibitor ICI 182,780 (ICI). Then, bone mineralization was performed by Alizarin Red Staining. The markers of osteogenic differentiation and downstream Wnt3a/β-catenin signaling were detected by western blotting. Results showed that BTS enhanced the osteogenic differentiation of rBMSCs, increased protein expression levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), collagen type I (Col I) and osteocalcin (OCN), and it increased the protein expression levels of estrogen receptor (ER) α (ERα), Wnt3a, and β-catenin. BTS The activated Wnt3a/β-catenin signaling pathway induced by BTS was abolished by ICI 182,780 (ICI). In addition, overexpressing ERα in rBMSCs promoted the osteogenic differentiation by BTS. Taken together, BTS induced osteogenic differentiation of rBMSCs via the ERα and downstream canonical Wnt3a/β-catenin pathway.

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Keywords

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