Evidence Hub

CD39 Produced from Human GMSCs Regulates the Balance of Osteoclasts and Osteoblasts through the Wnt/β-Catenin Pathway in Osteoporosis

Wen-Bin Wu, Ze-Xiu Xiao, Ye Chen, Yanan Deng, Dong-Lan Zeng, Yan Liu, Feng Huang, Julie Wang et al.

Molecular Therapy, 2020

70 citations

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a disease in which the density and quality of bone are reduced, causing bones to become weak and so brittle that a fall or even mild stresses can cause a fracture. Current drug treatment consists mainly of antiresorptive agents that are unable to stimulate new bone formation. Our recent studies have defined a critical role of gingiva-derived mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs) in attenuating autoimmune arthritis through inhibition of osteoclast formation and activities, but it remains to be ruled out whether the administration of GMSCs to patients with osteoporosis could also regulate osteoblasts and eventually affect bone formation and protection. With the use of an ovariectomized mouse model, we here demonstrated that adoptive transfer of GMSCs regulated the balance of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, eventually contributing to dynamic bone formation. Validation by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), single-cell sequencing, revealed a unique population of CD39+ GMSC that plays an important role in promoting bone formation. We further demonstrated that CD39 produced from GMSC exerted its osteogenic capacity through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Our results not only establish a previously unidentified role and mechanism of GMSC for bone promotion but also a potential therapeutic target for management of patients with osteoporosis and other bone loss conditions.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free