Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Debra L Ellies.
In this issue of Cell, Grosschedl and colleagues (Dobreva et al., 2006) report that the nuclear matrix protein Satb2 represses Hoxa2 expression and acts with other regulatory proteins to promote osteoblast differentiation. This work suggests a molecular mechanism that enables the integration of patterning and differentiation during bone formation.
UNLABELLED: We compared and contrasted the mechanism of action for the cysteine knot protein subfamily, Wise and Sost (Sclerostin). Our data suggest that functional interactions between Sost or Wise and LRP5/LRP6 have the potential to regulate bone deposition by modulating the Wnt pathway. INTRODUCTION: The human disease sclerosteosis exhibits an increase in bone mass thought to be caused by hyperactive osteoblasts. Sclerostin, SOST, the gene affected in this disease, has been postulated to exert its activity by functioning as a BMP antagonist. However, recent evidence indicates that SOST is highly related to Wise, which can also modulate the Wnt pathway by binding to LRP5 and LRP6. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For this study, we used cell culture to test the BMP and Wnt activity function of both Wise and Sost. In addition, we used Xenopus in vivo Wnt assays along with Xenopus in vitro Wnt assays to support our cell culture results. Epitope tagged cell supernatants containing either Sost or soluble mutant or wildtype LRP5/LRP6 were used for immunoprecipitation. Sost immunoprecipitation results were confirmed in vivo using cell culture. Finally, to support our in vitro data, we co-localized Sost, Wise, LRP5, and LRP6 in mouse long bone sections. RESULTS: In this study, we report in vitro and in vivo evidence to show that Sost physically interacts with Lrp5 and Lrp6 and inhibits the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. Furthermore, using in vitro and in vivo assays, we showed that a variant of LRP5 (LRP5(G171V)) known to cause the human high bone mass (HBM) trait and a homologous change in LRP6 (LRP6(G158V)) abolished protein interactions with Sost. We used variants of Sost amino acids to further identify the contact points between Sost and LRP6. In Xenopus and mammalian cell culture assays, we showed that SOST is able to attenuate Wnt signaling and that this attenuation can be rescued by the addition of alpha-Sost antibodies or by the introduction of single amino acid substitution that alter its binding to LRP6. Sost differs from Wise in that it is unable to stimulate Wnt signaling. Using immunohistochemistry, we found that Sost and Wise are co-localized to osteoblasts, along with LRP5 and LRP6. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that functional interactions between Sost or Wise and LRPs have the potential to regulate bone deposition by modulating Wnt signaling.
Cranial neural crest cells are a multipotent, migratory population that generates most of the cartilage, bone, connective tissue and peripheral nervous system in the vertebrate head. Proper neural crest cell patterning is essential for normal craniofacial morphogenesis and is highly conserved among vertebrates. Neural crest cell patterning is intimately connected to the early segmentation of the neural tube, such that neural crest cells migrate in discrete segregated streams. Recent advances in live embryo imaging have begun to reveal the complex behaviour of neural crest cells which involve intricate cell-cell and cell-environment interactions. Despite the overall similarity in neural crest cell migration between distinct vertebrates species there are important mechanistic differences. Apoptosis for example, is important for neural crest cell patterning in chick embryos but not in mouse, frog or fish embryos. In this paper we highlight the potential evolutionary significance of such interspecies differences in jaw development and evolution. Developmental Dynamics 229:14-29, 2004.
In the avian hindbrain, premigratory neural crest cells undergo programmed cell death (apoptosis) in rhombomeres 3 and 5 (r3, r5). Here, we have attempted to analyze the significance of the loss of neural crest cells from these odd-numbered rhombomeres. When apoptosis is prevented in r3 and r5, r3 crest migrate into the first arch and r5 into the third arch. Interestingly, these extra neural crest cells contributed to the formation of ectopic muscle attachment sites that are also found in those species in which r3 and r5 neural crest cells do not undergo apoptosis. Thus, apoptosis in the odd-numbered rhombomeres appears to be an evolutionarily derived mechanism that is required to eliminate r3 and r5 crest migration into first and third arches and thereby remove these muscle attachment sites.