1. Academic Validation
  2. Overexpression of CRABP2 inhibits dexamethasone-induced apoptosis in human osteoblast cells

Overexpression of CRABP2 inhibits dexamethasone-induced apoptosis in human osteoblast cells

  • J Orthop Surg Res. 2021 Apr 20;16(1):272. doi: 10.1186/s13018-021-02386-6.
Haiping Zhang  # 1 Ziliang Yu  # 1 Farui Sun 2 3 Jin Jin 4
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Orthopaedics, Affiliated Hospital 2 of Nantong University, Nantong University, Nantong, 226000, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
  • 2 Department of Orthopaedics, Huangshi Central Hospital (Affiliated Hospital of Hubei Polytechnic University), Edong Healthcare Group, Huangshi, 435000, Hubei, People's Republic of China. [email protected].
  • 3 Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. [email protected].
  • 4 Department of Endocrinology, the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou medical University, Xuzhou, 221000, China. [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Background: The purpose of the current study was to explore the role and underlying mechanism of cellular retinoic acid binding protein 2 (CRABP2) in dexamethasone (DEX)-induced Apoptosis in human osteoblast cells.

Methods: GSE10311 was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by the limma/R package. Primary human osteoblast was isolated and treated with different concentration of DEX (0, 10-8, 10-7, 10-6, 10-5, and 10-4 mol/L), and cell viability and flow cytometry were used to detect cell proliferation and Apoptosis. A CRABP2 overexpression plasmid (oe-CRABP2) was used to overexpress CRABP2, and western blotting was conducted to detect protein expression.

Results: We found that CRABP2 was downregulated in the DEX-treated group. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses indicated that DEGs were associated with PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. DEX downregulated CRABP2 gene and protein expression, inhibited viability, and induced human osteoblast Apoptosis. Overexpression of CRABP2 reversed DEX-induced Apoptosis in human osteoblast. Moreover, overexpression of CRABP2 delayed the progression of DEX-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) animal model.

Conclusion: In conclusion, CRABP2 is effective at inhibiting DEX-induced human osteoblast Apoptosis and delayed ONFH progression.

Keywords

Apoptosis; Bioinformatic analysis; CRABP2; Osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

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