Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been frequently studied for its beneficial effects on the repair of injured articular cartilage. Here, we hypothesized that these effects are due to stimulation of chondrogenic progenitor cell (CPC) migration toward injured areas in cartilage through focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activation. CPC chemotaxis in bluntly impacted osteochondral explants was examined by confocal microscopy and migratory activity of cultured CPCs was measured in trans-well and monolayer scratch assays. FAK activation by LIPUS was analyzed in cultured CPCs by western blot. LIPUS effects were compared with the effects of two known chemotactic factors; formylated-methionine peptides (fMLF), and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein. LIPUS significantly enhanced CPC migration on explants and in cell culture assays. Phosphorylation of FAK at the kinase domain (Tyr 576/577) was maximized by 5 minute exposure to LIPUS at a dose of 27.5 mW/cm2 and at a frequency of 3.5 MHz. Treatment with fMLF, but not HMBG1 enhanced FAK activation to a degree similar to LIPUS, but neither fMLF nor HMGB1 enhanced the LIPUS effect. LIPUS-induced CPC migration was blocked by suppressing FAK phosphorylation with a Src family kinases (SFKs) inhibitor that blocks FAK phosphorylation. Our results imply that LIPUS might be utilized to promote cartilage healing by inducing the migration of CPCs to injured sites, which could delay or prevent the onset of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA).

Serious meniscus injuries seldom heal and increase the risk for knee osteoarthritis; thus, there is a need to develop new reparative therapies. In that regard, stimulating tissue regeneration by autologous stem/progenitor cells has emerged as a promising new strategy. We showed previously that migratory chondrogenic progenitor cells (CPCs) were recruited to injured cartilage, where they showed a capability in situ tissue repair. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the meniscus contains a similar population of regenerative cells. Explant studies revealed that migrating cells were mainly confined to the red zone in normal menisci: However, these cells were capable of repopulating defects made in the white zone. In vivo, migrating cell numbers increased dramatically in damaged meniscus. Relative to non-migrating meniscus cells, migrating cells were more clonogenic, overexpressed progenitor cell markers, and included a larger side population. Gene expression profiling showed that the migrating population was more similar to CPCs than other meniscus cells. Finally, migrating cells equaled CPCs in chondrogenic potential, indicating a capacity for repair of the cartilaginous white zone of the meniscus. These findings demonstrate that, much as in articular cartilage, injuries to the meniscus mobilize an intrinsic progenitor cell population with strong reparative potential. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:1966-1972, 2017.

BackgroundImage-guided high intensity focused ultrasound has been used as an extracorporeal cardiac pacing tool and to enhance homing of stem cells to targeted tissues. However, molecular changes in the myocardium after sonication have not been widely investigated. Magnetic-resonance (MR)-guided pulsed focused ultrasound (pFUS) was targeted to the rat myocardium over a range of pressures and the microenvironmental and histological effects were evaluated over time.MethodsEight-to-ten-week-old Sprague–Dawley rats received T2-weighted MR images to target pFUS to the left ventricular and septum without cardiac or respiratory gating. Rats were sonicated through the thoracic wall at peak negative pressures (PNP) from 1 to 8 MPa at a center frequency of 1 MHz, 10 ms pulse duration and 1 Hz pulse repetition frequency for 100 pulses per focal target. Following pFUS, myocardium was harvested over 24 h and subjected to imaging, proteomic, and histological measurements.ResultspFUS to the myocardium increased expression of cytokines, chemokines, and trophic factors characterized by an initial increase in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α followed by increases in pro- and anti-inflammatory factors that returned to baseline by 24 h. Immediately after pFUS, there was a transient (< 1 h) increase in N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) without elevation of other cardiac injury markers. A relationship between PNP and expression of TNF-α and NT-proBNP was observed with significant changes (p < 0.05 ANOVA) ≥ 4 MPa compared to untreated controls. Contrast-enhanced ex vivo T1-weighted MRI revealed vascular leakage in sonicated myocardium that was accompanied by the presence of albumin upon immunohistochemistry. Histology revealed infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages without morphological myofibril changes in sonicated tissue accompanied by pulmonary hemorrhage at PNP > 4 MPa.ConclusionsMR-guided pFUS to myocardium induced transient proteomic and histological changes. The temporal proteomic changes in the myocardium indicate a short-lived sterile inflammatory response consistent with ischemia or contusion. Further study of myocardial function and strain is needed to determine if pFUS could be developed as an experimental model of cardiac injury and chest trauma.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12967-017-1361-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Focal adhesions are transmembrane protein complexes that attach chondrocytes to the pericellular cartilage matrix and in turn, are linked to intracellular organelles via cytoskeleton. We previously found that excessive compression of articular cartilage leads to cytoskeleton-dependent chondrocyte death. Here we tested the hypothesis that this process also requires integrin activation and signaling via focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and Src family kinase (SFK). Osteochondral explants were treated with FAK and SFK inhibitors (FAKi, SFKi respectively) for 2 hours and then subjected to a death-inducing impact load. Chondrocyte viability was assessed by confocal microscopy immediately and at 24 hours post-impact. With no treatment immediate post-impact viability was 59%. Treatment with 10μM SFKi, 10μM or 100μM FAKi improved viability to 80%, 77%, and 82% respectively (p<0.05). After 24 hours viability declined to 34% in controls, 48% with 10μM SFKi, 45% with 10μM FAKi, and 56% with 100μM FAKi (p<0.01) treatment. These results confirmed that most of the acute chondrocyte mortality was FAK- and SFK-dependent, which implicates integrin-cytoskeleton interactions in the death signaling pathway. Together with previous findings, these data support the hypothesis that the excessive tissue strains accompanying impact loading induce death via a pathway initiated by strain on cell adhesion receptors.

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