title: CCN family 2/connective tissue growth factor modulates BMP signalling as a signal conductor, which action regulates the proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes.
abstract: Both CCN family 2/connective tissue growth factor (CCN2/CTGF) and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2 play an important role in cartilage metabolism. We evaluated whether or not CCN2 would interact with BMP-2, and examined the combination effect of CCN2 with BMP-2 (CCN2-BMP-2) on the proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes. Immunoprecipitation-western blotting analysis, solid-phase binding assay and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy showed that CCN2 directly interacted with BMP-2 with a dissociation constant of 0.77 nM as evaluated by SPR. An in vivo study revealed that CCN2 was co-localized with BMP-2 at the pre-hypertrophic region in the E18.5 mouse growth plate. Interestingly, CCN2-BMP-2 did not affect the BMP-2/CCN2-induced phosphorylation of p38 MAPK but caused less phosphorylation of ERK1/2 in cultured chondrocytes. Consistent with these results, cell proliferation assay showed that CCN2-BMP-2 stimulated cell growth to a lesser degree than by either CCN2 or BMP-2 alone, whereas the expression of chondrocyte marker genes and proteoglycan synthesis, representing the mature chondrocytic phenotype, was increased collaboratively by CCN2-BMP-2 treatment in cultured chondrocytes. These findings suggest that CCN2 may regulate the proliferating and differentiation of chondrocytes by forming a complex with BMP-2 as a novel modulator of BMP signalling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Dentistry, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Azusa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Eriko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aoyama
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Karen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.forename: Takuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuboki
authors.forename: Masaharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takigawa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 / Q000378:metabolism; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D055513:Connective Tissue Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D015398:Signal Transduction; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance
chemical_list: D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D055513:Connective Tissue Growth Factor