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Hyun-Duck Nah

Publications and source records attributed to Hyun-Duck Nah.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Runx2 regulates FGF2-induced Bmp2 expression during cranial bone development.

Calvarial bone is formed by the intramembranous bone-forming process, which involves many signaling molecules. The constitutive activation of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling pathway accelerates osteoblast differentiation and results in premature cranial suture closure. Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathways, which involve the downstream transcription factors Dlx5 and Msx2, are also involved in the bone-forming processes. However, the relationships between these two main signaling cascades are still unclear. We found that FGF2 treatment of developing bone fronts stimulated Bmp2 gene expression but that BMP2 treatment could not induce Fgf2 expression. Moreover, the disruption of the Runx2 gene completely eliminated the expression of Bmp2 and its downstream genes Dlx5 and Msx2 in the developing primordium of bone, while the expression of Fgf2 was maintained. In addition, cultured Runx2-/- cells expressed very low baseline levels of Bmp2 that were up-regulated by transfection with a Runx2-expressing plasmid. These levels in turn were markedly elevated by FGF2 treatment. FGF2 treatment also strongly enhanced the Bmp2 expression in MC3T3-E1 cells, whose endogenous Runx2 gene is intact and which express Bmp2 at low baseline levels as well. These results indicate that Runx2 is an important mediator of the expression of Bmp2 in response to FGF stimulation in cranial bone development.

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Effects of FGF-2/-9 in calvarial bone cell cultures: differentiation stage-dependent mitogenic effect, inverse regulation of BMP-2 and noggin, and enhancement of osteogenic potential.

Systemically administered fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) show anabolic effects on bone formation in animals, whereas in vitro cell culture studies have demonstrated that FGFs block mineralized bone nodule formation. These apparently contradictory outcomes indicate that the nature of FGF action is complex and that the biological effect of FGFs may depend on the differentiation stage of osteoblasts, interaction with other cytokines, or the length and mode of exposure to factors. Thus, we have utilized primary calvarial bone cell populations at different maturation phases to determine their responses to 2, FGF-9, and BMP-2, the factors expressed in bone. FGF-2 and FGF-9 stimulated proliferation of the cell populations consisting of more mature osteoblasts, but not those with undifferentiated precursor cells. Continuous treatment with FGF-2/-9 inhibited expression of several osteoblast marker genes and mineralization. However, brief pretreatment with FGF-2/-9 or sequential treatment with FGF-2/-9 followed by BMP-2 led to marked stimulation of mineralization, suggesting that FGFs enhance the intrinsic osteogenic potential. Furthermore, FGF-2 and FGF-9 increased expression of other osteogenic factors BMP-2 and TGFbeta-1. Meanwhile, blocking endogenous FGF signaling, using a virally transduced dominant-negative FGF receptor (FgfR), resulted in drastically reduced expression of the BMP-2 gene, demonstrating for the first time that endogenous FGF/FgfR signaling is a positive upstream regulator of the BMP-2 gene in calvarial osteoblasts. In contrast, expression of a BMP antagonist noggin was inhibited by FGF-2 and FGF-9. Thus, collective data from this study suggest that FGF/FgfR signaling enhances the intrinsic osteogenic potential by selectively expanding committed osteogenic cell populations as well as inversely regulating BMP-2 and noggin gene expression.

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Growth and development: hereditary and mechanical modulations.

Growth and development is the net result of environmental modulation of genetic inheritance. Mesenchymal cells differentiate into chondrogenic, osteogenic, and fibrogenic cells: the first 2 are chiefly responsible for endochondral ossification, and the last 2 for sutural growth. Cells are influenced by genes and environmental cues to migrate, proliferate, differentiate, and synthesize extracellular matrix in specific directions and magnitudes, ultimately resulting in macroscopic shapes such as the nose and the chin. Mechanical forces, the most studied environmental cues, readily modulate bone and cartilage growth. Recent experimental evidence demonstrates that cyclic forces evoke greater anabolic responses of not only craniofacial sutures, but also cranial base cartilage. Mechanical forces are transmitted as tissue-borne and cell-borne mechanical strain that in turn regulates gene expression, cell proliferation, differentiation, maturation, and matrix synthesis, the totality of which is growth and development. Thus, hereditary and mechanical modulations of growth and development share a common pathway via genes. Combined approaches using genetics, bioengineering, and quantitative biology are expected to bring new insight into growth and development, and might lead to innovative therapies for craniofacial skeletal dysplasia including malocclusion, dentofacial deformities, and craniofacial anomalies such as cleft palate and craniosynostosis, as well as disorders associated with the temporomandibular joint.

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Activating (P253R, C278F) and dominant negative mutations of FGFR2: differential effects on calvarial bone cell proliferation, differentiation, and mineralization.

Various activating mutations of FgfR2 have been linked to a number of craniosynostosis syndromes, suggesting that FGFR2-mediated signaling plays significant roles in intramembranous bone formation. To define (i) the roles of FGFR2-mediated signaling in osteogenesis and (ii) bone cell functions affected by abnormal signaling induced by craniosynostosis mutations, chicken calvarial osteoblasts were infected with replication competent avian sarcoma viruses expressing FgfR2 with dominant negative (DN), P253R (Apert), or C278F (Pfeiffer and Crouzon) mutation. Analyses of the infected osteoblasts revealed that attenuated FGF/FGFR signaling by DN-FgfR2 resulted in a decrease in cell proliferation and accelerated mineralization. In contrast, the C278F mutation, which causes ligand-independent activation of the receptor, significantly stimulated cell proliferation and inhibited mineralization. Interestingly, the P253R mutation, which does not cause ligand-independent activation of the receptor, showed a weaker mitogenic effect than the C278F mutation and did not inhibit mineralization. Gene expression analysis also revealed diverse effects of C278F and P253R mutations on expression of several osteogenic genes. Based on these results, we conclude that one of the major functions of FGFR2 is to mediate mitogenic signals in osteoblasts and that distinctively different cellular mechanisms underlie the pathogenesis of craniosynostosis phenotypes resulting from P253R and C278F mutations of the FGFR2 gene.

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