Teriparatide, a recombinant form of parathyroid hormone (PTH), is the only approved treatment for osteoporosis that increases the rate of bone formation. Teriparatide increases osteoblast numbers by suppressing osteoblast apoptosis and activating bone-lining cells. No direct evidence for teriparatide's actions on early cells of the osteoblast lineage has been demonstrated. Here, we have employe...

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive serosal tumor associated with asbestos exposure. We previously demonstrated that mesothelial cells differentiate into cells of different mesenchymal lineages and hypothesize that osseous tissue observed in a subset of MM patients is due to local differentiation of MM cells. In this study, the capacity of human and mouse MM cells to differentiate into...

A proteomic analysis of proteins bound to the osteocalcin OSE2 sequence of the mouse osteocalcin promoter identified TRPS1 as a regulator of osteocalcin transcription. Mutations in the TRPS1 gene are responsible for human tricho-rhino-phalangeal syndrome, which is characterized by skeletal and craniofacial abnormalities. TRPS1 has been shown to bind regulatory promoter sequences containing GATA...

Stem cell function decline during ageing can involve both cell intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms. Bone and blood formation are intertwined in bone marrow, therefore haematopoietic cells and bone cells could be extrinsic factors for each other. In this study, we assessed the paracrine effects of extrinsic factors from haematopoietic cells on human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Our data showed ...

Dithiocarbamates (DTC), a sulfhydryl group containing compounds, are extensively used by humans that include metam and thiram due to their pesticide properties, and disulfiram (DSF) as an alcohol deterrent. We screened these DTC in an osteoblast viability assay. DSF exhibited the highest cytotoxicity (IC50 488nM). Loss in osteoblast viability and proliferation was due to induction of apoptosis ...

Commonly used implants for therapeutic approaches of non-systemically impaired bone do not sufficiently support the healing process of osteoporotic bone. Since strontium (II) has been proven as an effective anti-osteoporotic drug new types of strontium enriched calcium phosphate bone cements were developed. As osteoporosis is characterized by an imbalance of osteoblast and osteoclast activity t...

BACKGROUND Two new tumor-like cell lines were established which developed spontaneously in vitro from normal human primary osteoblast-like cells originating from non-oncogenic bone surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS The tumor cell properties studied included morphology, proliferation characteristics in normal and low-serum media, and anchorage-independent growth in soft agarose. RESULTS AND CON...

INTRODUCTION Myeloma bone disease (MBD) is the result of the increased activity of osteoclasts (OCs), which is not accompanied by a comparable increase of osteoblast (OB) function, thus leading to enhanced bone resorption. Osteoblasts can also regulate osteoclast activity through expression of cytokines, such as receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL), which activates osteoclast ...

We previously demonstrated that blocking hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) receptor/c-Met signaling inhibited arthritis and articular bone destruction in mouse models of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the present study, we investigated the role of c-Met signaling in osteoblast differentiation using the C2C12 myoblast cell line derived from murine satellite cells and the MC3T3-E1 murine pre-osteobla...

The mitochondrial ATP-dependent K channel (mitoKATP) has been shown to play a role in cellular protection against apoptosis, or programmed cell death. This channel has been identified and characterized in a number of cell and tissue types but to date the possible existence of mitoKATP in osteoblastic cells has not been investigated. The aim of this investigation was to establish whether the mit...