| First Author | Kim D | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | Biochem Biophys Res Commun | Volume | 382 |
| Issue | 4 | Pages | 745-50 |
| PubMed ID | 19324011 | Mgi Jnum | J:148352 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3844394 | Doi | 10.1016/j.bbrc.2009.03.100 |
| Citation | Kim D, et al. (2009) Overexpression of alpha-catenin increases osteoblastic differentiation in mouse mesenchymal C3H10T1/2 cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 382(4):745-50 |
| abstractText | alpha- and beta-Catenin link cadherins to the actin-based cytoskeleton at adherens junctions and regulate cell-cell adhesion. Although roles of cadherins and canonical Wnt-/beta-catenin-signaling in osteoblastic differentiation have been extensively studied, the role of alpha-catenin is not known. Murine embryonic mesenchymal stem cells, C3H10T1/2 cells, were transduced with retrovirus encoding alpha-catenin (MSCV-alpha-catenin-HA-GFP). In the presence of Wnt-3A conditioned medium or osteogenic medium (beta-glycerol phosphate and ascorbic acid), cells overexpressing alpha-catenin showed enhanced osteoblastic differentiation as measured by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining and ALP activity assay compared to cells transduced with empty virus (MSCV-GFP). In addition, mRNA expression of osteocalcin and Runx2 was significantly increased compared to control. Cell aggregation assay revealed that alpha-catenin overexpression has significantly increased cell-cell aggregation. However, cellular beta-catenin levels (total, cytoplasmic-nuclear ratio) and beta-catenin-TCF/LEF transcriptional activity did not change by overexpression of alpha-catenin. Knock-down of alpha-catenin using siRNA decreased osteoblastic differentiation as measured by ALP assay. These results suggest that alpha-catenin overexpression increases osteoblastic differentiation by increasing cell-cell adhesion rather than Wnt-/beta-catenin-signaling. |
