Signal transduction activated during differentiation of osteoblsts and osteocytes

Author(s)

Willian Fernando Zambuzzi

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2008-11-04

Examining board members

Carmen Veríssima Ferreira; Hernandes Faustino de Carvalho; Adriana Carmona; Nadja Cristhina de Souza Pinto; Carlos Francisco Sampaio Bonafé

• Advisor: Jose Mauro Granjeiro; Maikel Petrus Peppelenbosch; Carmen Veríssima Ferreira

Abstract

The main goal of this work was to investigate the signal transduction pathways triggered during the bone cells differentiation. In this way, several molecular aspects of this process were analyzed. Src kinase modulation by the low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (LMWPTP) was essential for the occurrence of the differentiation induced by ascorbic acid and glycerophosphate. We also evaluated, under molecular and morphological patterns, the differentiation of pre-osteoblasts into osteocyte-like cells induced by 3D scaffold (matrigel as substrate). Interestingly, under this condition, the cells produced sonic hedgehog (Shh), which also was essential for stimulating the differentiation signaling pathway. Kinomic profiling of these cells revealed a prevalence of kinases involved in cellular communication, which is in agreement with the overexpression of connexin 43 observed. Besides we observed that RECK and TIMP-1 modulated the extracellular matrix rearrangement and that PP2A and p38 MAPK are required for osteoblasts adhesion. In addition, we observed that during pre-osteoblasts differentiation both PTPs and cellular redox are tightly regulated. Our findings demonstrated that the signal transduction evaluation can provide important information for understanding the cell biology as well as defining molecular targets that can be useful for different applications (AU)