Recombinant human lactoferrin as a biomaterial for bone tissue engineering: mechanism of antiapoptotic and osteogenic activity.

Lactoferrin is a bioactive globular protein with unique properties towards musculo-skeletal cells and anabolic to bone in vivo. Even though the potent anti-apoptotic and osteogenic activity of lactoferrin has been reported, the mechanism of action has not been fully elucidated. The study demonstrates that the anti-apoptotic effect of rhLF towards MC3T3 pre-osteoblast cells is mediated by Wnt5a/PKA pathway and the stabilization of ß-catenin by rhLF is dependent on PKA/LRP6 signaling pathway. The study also investigates the feasibility of developing rhLF as a biomaterial for cell delivery. The injectable rhLF cell delivery vehicles are prepared by enzymatic crosslinking of tyramine-modified rhLF in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and horseradish peroxidase. The modified rhLF shows bioactivity similar to unmodified rhLF. The rhLF gels support encapsulated MC3T3 cell viability, proliferation, and differentiation, as well as phosphorylation of signaling proteins. In conclusion, the study demonstrates the involvement of Wnt5a, LRP6, and PKA signaling in rhLF-mediated bioactivity towards MC3T3 cells and the feasibility of developing an injectable cell delivery vehicle from rhLF.

Enzymatically cross-linked bovine lactoferrin as injectable hydrogel for cell delivery.

Lactoferrin (LF), a 78 kDa glycoprotein, has recently been recognized as an effector molecule in the skeleton due to its ability to decrease osteoclastogenesis and increase osteoblast proliferation, survival, and differentiation. The objective of the study is to investigate the feasibility of developing an injectable hydrogel from bovine lactoferrin (bLF) as a cell delivery vehicle. The study demonstrated the feasibility of cross-linking tyramine substituted bLF in the presence of horse radish peroxidase and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The gel presented a mild environment to maintain mouse bone marrow-derived stromal cell (mBMSC) viability and proliferation. Stromal cells derived from multiple gene reporter transgenic mouse (Ibsp-Topaz/Dmp1-mCherry) line showed the ability of the cells to undergo osteogenic differentiation in the hydrogel when cultured in mineralization media. The cross-linked gel supported protein phosphorylation/de-phosphorylation in the encapsulated MC3T3-E1 cells. bLF and bLF gel also showed the ability to modulate growth factor production in mBMSCs.

Evaluation of the bioactivity of recombinant human lactoferrins toward murine osteoblast-like cells for bone tissue engineering.

Lactoferrin (LF), which belongs to the iron-binding transferrin family, is an important regulator of the levels of free iron in the body fluids. LF has raised significant interest as a bioactive protein due to its wide array of physiological effects on many different cell types, including osteoblasts and osteoclasts. The glycoprotein's degree of iron saturation has a pivotal influence on its physical structure. The objective of this study is to investigate the biological effects of apo (low iron saturation), pis (partially iron saturated), and holo (high iron saturation) recombinant human LF (rhLF) on MC3T3-E1 cells to identify the suitable candidate for bone tissue engineering application. Our studies demonstrated a dose-dependent mitogenic response of MC3T3 to rhLF treatment irrespective of the iron concentration. Furthermore, rhLF induced the cells to produce transcription factors, chemokines, and cytokines as determined by ß-catenin activation, phosphorylation of Akt, vascular endothelial growth factor, and interleukin (IL-6) expression. The iron saturation of rhLF did not have any significant effect on these biological activities of MC3T3 cells. In addition, the overall pattern of gene regulation in MC3T3-E1 cells upon rhLF treatment was followed by a global microarray analysis. Among the 45,200 genes tested, only 251 genes were found to be regulated by rhLFs of different iron concentrations. Of these, the transferrin receptor (Tfrc) was the only gene differentially regulated by the iron saturated and iron depleted (apo) rhLFs. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that rhLF is a bioactive protein and that the iron saturation of rhLF may not play a significant role in modulating osteoblast functions.

Injectable hydrogels for bone and cartilage repair.

Injectable in situ crosslinkable gels are highly desirable clinically as they can be introduced into a body via a minimally invasive manner using endoscopic or percutaneous procedures. Several hydrophilic polymeric systems that respond to stimuli such as light, temperature, pH, ionic concentration as well as those that can undergo chemical reactions to form crosslinked matrices are currently under development. This paper discusses the applications of hydrogels as scaffolds to mimic the native extracellular matrix of bone and cartilage. A comprehensive description of various gelation methods used in hydrogel preparation and their application as injectable cell and protein delivery vehicle for bone and cartilage regeneration is also presented.

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) inversely regulates atrophy-induced genes via the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K/Akt/mTOR) pathway.

Skeletal muscle size is regulated by anabolic (hypertrophic) and catabolic (atrophic) processes. We first characterized molecular markers of both hypertrophy and atrophy and identified a small subset of genes that are inversely regulated in these two settings (e.g. up-regulated by an inducer of hypertrophy, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and down-regulated by a mediator of atrophy, dexamethasone). The genes identified as being inversely regulated by atrophy, as opposed to hypertrophy, include the E3 ubiquitin ligase MAFbx (also known as atrogin-1). We next sought to investigate the mechanism by which IGF-1 inversely regulates these markers, and found that the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K/Akt/mTOR) pathway, which we had previously characterized as being critical for hypertrophy, is also required to be active in order for IGF-1-mediated transcriptional changes to occur. We had recently demonstrated that the IGF1/PI3K/Akt pathway can block dexamethasone-induced up-regulation of the atrophy-induced ubiquitin ligases MuRF1 and MAFbx by blocking nuclear translocation of a FOXO transcription factor. In the current study we demonstrate that an additional step of IGF1 transcriptional regulation occurs downstream of mTOR, which is independent of FOXO. Thus both the Akt/FOXO and the Akt/mTOR pathways are required for the transcriptional changes induced by IGF-1.