Different bone remodeling levels of trabecular and cortical bone in response to changes in Wnt/-catenin signaling in mice. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Trabecular bone and cortical bone have different bone remodeling levels, and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In the present study, the expression of Wnt/-catenin signaling and its downstream molecules along with bone mass in trabecular and cortical bone were compared in wild-type mice, constitutive activation of -catenin (CA--catenin) mice and -catenin deletion mice. It was found that the expression level of most of the examined genes such as Wnt3a, -catenin, osteocalcin and RANKL/OPG ratio were significantly higher in trabecular bone than in cortical bone in wild-type mice. CA--catenin resulted in up-regulated expression of the above-mentioned genes except for RANKL/OPG ratio, which were down-regulated. Also, CA--catenin led to increased number of osteoblasts, decreased number of osteoclasts and increased bone mass in both the trabecular bone and cortical bone compared with wild-type mice; however, the extent of changes was much greater in the trabecular bone than in the cortical bone. By contrast, null -catenin led to down-regulated expression of the above-mentioned genes except for RANKL/OPG ratio. Furthermore, -catenin deletion led to decreased number of osteoblasts, increased number of osteoclasts and decreased bone mass when compared with wild-type mice. Again, the extent of these changes was more significant in trabecular bone than cortical bone. Taken together, we found that the expression level of Wnt/-catenin signaling and bone remodeling-related molecules were different in cortical bone and trabecular bone, and the trabecular bone was more readily affected by changes in the Wnt/-catenin signaling pathway. 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:812-819, 2017.

published proceedings

  • J Orthop Res

author list (cited authors)

  • Li, J., Bao, Q., Chen, S., Liu, H., Feng, J., Qin, H., ... Zong, Z.

citation count

  • 40

complete list of authors

  • Li, Junfeng||Bao, Quanwei||Chen, Sixu||Liu, Huayu||Feng, Jianquan||Qin, Hao||Li, Ang||Liu, Daocheng||Shen, Yue||Zhao, Yufeng||Zong, Zhaowen

publication date

  • April 2017

publisher