Insulin-like growth factor-I signaling is modified during chondrocyte differentiation.
Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is a critical regulator of skeletal growth. While IGF-I has been shown to be a potent chondrocyte mitogen in vitro, its role in chondrocyte differentiation is less well characterized. We chose to study the action of IGF-I on an accepted model of chondrocyte differentiation, the ATDC5 cell line. Insulin concentrations sufficiently high to interact with the IGF-I receptor are routinely used to induce ATDC5 cells to differentiate. Therefore, we first examined the ability of IGF-I to promote chondrocyte differentiation at physiological concentrations. IGF-I could induce differentiation of these cells at concentrations below 10 nM. However, increasing IGF-I concentrations were less potent at inducing differentiation. We hypothesized that mitogenic effects of IGF-I might inhibit its differentiating effects. Indeed, the extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-pathway inhibitor PD98059 inhibited ATDC5 cell DNA synthesis while enhancing differentiation. This suggested that the ability of IGF-I to promote both proliferation and differentiation might require that its signaling be modulated through the differentiation process. We therefore compared IGF-I-mediated ERK activation in proliferating and hypertrophic chondrocytes. IGF-I potently induced ERK activation in proliferating cells, but minimal ERK response was seen in hypertrophic cells. In contrast, IGF-I-mediated Akt activation was unchanged by differentiation, indicating intact upstream IGF-I receptor signaling. Similar findings were observed in the RCJ3.1C5.18 chondrogenic cell line and in primary chick chondrocytes. We conclude that IGF-I promotes both proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes and that the differentiation effects of IGF-I may require uncoupling of signaling to the ERK pathway.
Phornphutkul
Chanika
C
Department of Pediatrics, Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. Chanika_Phornphutkul@brown.edu
Wu
Ke-Ying
KY
Yang
Xu
X
Chen
Qian
Q
Gruppuso
Philip A
PA
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D002460:Cell Line; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002642:Chick Embryo; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000494:pharmacology; D007328:Insulin / Q000494:pharmacology; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
D005419:Flavonoids; D007328:Insulin; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases; C093973:2-(2-amino-3-methoxyphenyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one