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Background: Osteoporosis (OP), a systemic skeletal disease common in aged population, is an important public health problem worldwide. Animal models are important tools for understanding OP. In ovariectomy (OVX) or orchiectomy (ORX) OP models, lumbar vertebrae are often used for evaluating of the OP progression. However, unlike the bipeds, the lumbar vertebrae are not weight loading bones in quadruped animal, but the head-bearing cervical vertebrae take much higher stress. So, we compared the murine cervical vertebrae with lumbar vertebrae for OP assessment. Methods: OVX and ORX mouse models were established on C57BL/6J mice. Serum estradiol, testosterone and bone related biomarkers were verified. Bone quantity and quality were determined using micro computed tomography (micro-CT) analysis. Hard tissue sections were prepared, stained for histomorphological analyzing, and micro-indentation measured for bone mechanical property evaluation. Results: In OVX and ORX mice, serum estradiol or testosterone levels reduced, bone resorption level and related biomarkers elevated, indicated the successful generation of the OP models. In the early stage, the trabecular bone mineral density (BMD) of cervical vertebrae was already reduced 16.1% (OVX) and 21.7% (ORX) one-month post-gonadectomy, respectively; while this decline in the fifth lumbar vertebra were only 5% and 7.4%, respectively. Six months post-gonadectomy, the reduction of BMD in cervical vertebrae and the fifth lumbar vertebra were 31.2% & 36.1% and 28.5% & 30.7% respectively. In biomechanical aspects, cervical spines showed worse Vickers hardness (HV) and elastic modulus than lumbar spine in six-month OVX and ORX mice. Conclusions: We provide a new OP early-stage evaluation mouse model based on the cervical spine. Through the radiographic, biological and biomechanical assessments, the mouse cervical spine is more suitable for bone remodeling evaluation in OP models than the conventional lumbar vertebrae, especially for early-stage OP study.
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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to understand more about long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) as potential prediction biomarkers or therapeutic targets for obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study aimed to find more lncRNA candidates related to obesity and T2DM. METHODS: In this study, a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity-T2DM mouse model was used, and a mRNA and lncRNA expression map was drawn up in adipose tissue by microarray technology. Then Gene Ontology analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis were performed and revealed that the most associated genes and pathways were metabolism-related ones. The candidate lncRNA expression was further validated in adipose tissue from HFD-induced mice by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. RESULTS: Transcriptome analyses were performed to show expression profiles of mRNAs and lncRNAs in epididymal adipose tissue in the obesity-T2DM mice. A total of 124 lncRNAs and 1,606 mRNAs were differentially expressed between the chow and HFD groups. Then, an mRNA-lncRNA coexpression network was constructed. Based on a series of analyses, 15 candidate lncRNAs were screened, and their expression was further validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal significant differences between the transcriptomes of the HFD and control groups in adipose tissue that provide clues to the molecular mechanisms of diet-induced metabolic disorders as well as biomarkers of risk for these disorders.
