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Inhibition of TGF-β signaling in mesenchymal stem cells of subchondral bone attenuates osteoarthritis

Nature Medicine 19, 704–712 (2013) | Download Citation

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Abstract

Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent and debilitating joint disorder. There is no effective medical therapy for the condition because of limited understanding of its pathogenesis. We show that transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) is activated in subchondral bone in response to altered mechanical loading in an anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) mouse model of osteoarthritis. TGF-β1 concentrations are also high in subchondral bone from humans with osteoarthritis. High concentrations of TGF-β1 induced formation of nestin-positive mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) clusters, leading to formation of marrow osteoid islets accompanied by high levels of angiogenesis. We found that transgenic expression of active TGF-β1 in osteoblastic cells induced osteoarthritis, whereas inhibition of TGF-β activity in subchondral bone attenuated the degeneration of articular cartilage. In particular, knockout of the TGF-β type II receptor (TβRII) in nestin-positive MSCs led to less development of osteoarthritis relative to wild-type mice after ACLT. Thus, high concentrations of active TGF-β1 in subchondral bone seem to initiate the pathological changes of osteoarthritis, and inhibition of this process could be a potential therapeutic approach to treating this disease.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by US National Institutes of Health grants DK 057501 and DK 08098 (both to X.C.). We thank R. Luck and L. Sakowski for collecting samples.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

    • Gehua Zhen
    • , Janet L Crane
    • , Simon C Mears
    • , Frank J Frassica
    • , Weizhong Chang
    • , John A Carrino
    • , Andrew Cosgarea
    • , Lee Riley
    • , Paul Sponseller
    • , Mei Wan
    •  & Xu Cao

  2. Institute of Cell Engineering, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

    • Gehua Zhen
    • , Janet L Crane
    • , Weizhong Chang
    • , Mei Wan
    •  & Xu Cao

  3. Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, China.

    • Chunyi Wen
    • , Jie Yao
    •  & William Weijia Lu

  4. Center for Human Tissues and Organs Degeneration, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen, China.

    • Chunyi Wen
    •  & William Weijia Lu

  5. Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

    • Xiaofeng Jia

  6. State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

    • Yu Li
    • , Qianming Chen
    • , Zhihe Zhao
    •  & Xuedong Zhou

  7. Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

    • Frederic B Askin

  8. Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

    • John A Carrino
    •  & Dmitri Artemov

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Contributions

G.Z. conceived the ideas for experimental designs, conducted the majority of the experiments, analyzed data and prepared the manuscript. C.W. conducted some of the surgery, performed MRI and μCT analyses and helped with manuscript preparation. X.J. provide ideas and helped with behavior analysis. Y.L. conduced cell culture, western blot and behavior analysis and helped with manuscript preparation. J.L.C., W.C. and M.W. helped compose the manuscript. S.C.M., F.B.A., F.J.F., A.C. and P.S. provided human specimens. D.A. and J.A.C. helped with MRI analysis. J.Y. performed computerized simulation. Q.C., X.Z., L.R., Z.Z. and W.W.L. provided suggestions for the project. X.C. developed the concept, supervised the project, conceived the experiments and wrote most of the manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xu Cao.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3143