First Author | Provot S | Year | 2008 |
Journal | Mol Cell Biol | Volume | 28 |
Issue | 1 | Pages | 344-57 |
PubMed ID | 17967876 | Mgi Jnum | J:128917 |
Mgi Id | MGI:3768284 | Doi | 10.1128/MCB.00617-07 |
Citation | Provot S, et al. (2008) A-raf and B-raf are dispensable for normal endochondral bone development, and parathyroid hormone-related peptide suppresses extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation in hypertrophic chondrocytes. Mol Cell Biol 28(1):344-57 |
abstractText | Parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) and the parathyroid hormone-PTHrP receptor increase chondrocyte proliferation and delay chondrocyte maturation in endochondral bone development at least partly through cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent signaling pathways. Because data suggest that the ability of cAMP to stimulate cell proliferation involves the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase B-Raf, we hypothesized that B-Raf might mediate the proliferative action of PTHrP in chondrocytes. Though B-Raf is expressed in proliferative chondrocytes, its conditional removal from cartilage did not affect chondrocyte proliferation and maturation or PTHrP-induced chondrocyte proliferation and PTHrP-delayed maturation. Similar results were obtained by conditionally removing B-Raf from osteoblasts. Because A-raf and B-raf are expressed similarly in cartilage, we speculated that they may fulfill redundant functions in this tissue. Surprisingly, mice with chondrocytes deficient in both A-Raf and B-Raf exhibited normal endochondral bone development. Activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) was detected primarily in hypertrophic chondrocytes, where C-raf is expressed, and the suppression of ERK activation in these cells by PTHrP or a MEK inhibitor coincided with a delay in chondrocyte maturation. Taken together, these results demonstrate that B-Raf and A-Raf are dispensable for endochondral bone development and they indicate that the main role of ERK in cartilage is to stimulate not cell proliferation, but rather chondrocyte maturation. |