During osteoporosis, the shift of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) lineage commitment to adipocyte leads to the imbalance between bone mass and fat, which increases the risk of fracture. The Enhancer of Zeste homology 2 (EZH2), which methylates histone H3 on lysine 27 (H3K27me3), controls MSC cell lineage commitment. However, whether EZH2 is related to osteoporosis remains elusive. In our study, we found EZH2 expression was significantly increased in osteoporotic MSCs. EZH2 directly increased H3K27me3 levels on promoters of Wnt1, Wnt6, and Wnt10a to silence Wnt gene transcription. The inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling shifted MSC cell lineage commitment to adipocyte. Knockdown of EZH2 by lentivirus-expressing shRNA rescued the abnormal fate of osteoporotic MSC. By employing the H3K27me3 inhibitor DZNep, we effectively derepressed Wnt signaling and improved osteogenic differentiation of osteoporotic MSCs in vitro. Furthermore, in vivo administration of DZNep successfully increased bone formation and repressed excessive bone marrow fat formation in osteoporotic mice. Noteworthy, DZNep treatment persistently enhanced osteogenic differentiation of endogenous MSCs. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that redundant EZH2 shifted MSC cell lineage commitment to adipocyte, which contributed to the development of osteoporosis. We also provided EZH2 as a novel therapeutic target for improving bone formation during osteoporosis.

Autophagy modulates angiogenesis-promoting ability of PDLSCs, which could be increased by an inflammatory environment.

Cutaneous wounds are among the most common soft tissue injuries. Wounds involving dermis suffer more from outside influence and higher risk of chronic inflammation. Therefore the appearance and function restoration has become an imperative in tissue engineering research. In this study, cell-aggregates constructed with green fluorescent protein-expressing (GFP+) rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) were applied to rat acute full-layer cutaneous wound model to confirm its pro-regeneration ability and compare its regenerative efficacy with the currently thriving subcutaneous and intravenous stem cell administration strategy, with a view to sensing the advantages, disadvantages and the mechanism behind. According to results, cell-aggregates cultured in vitro enjoyed higher expression of several pro-healing genes than adherent cultured cells. Animal experiments showed better vascularization along with more regular dermal collagen deposition for cell-aggregate transplanted models. Immunofluorescence staining on inflammatory cells indicated a shorter inflammatory phase for cell-aggregate group, which was backed up by further RT-PCR. The in situ immunofluorescence staining manifested a higher GFP+-cell engraftment for cell-aggregate transplanted models versus cell administered ones. Thus it is safe to say the BMMSCs aggregate could bring superior cutaneous regeneration for full layer cutaneous wound to BMMSCs administration, both intravenous and subcutaneous.

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