Suzuki Akiko, Ogata Kenichi, Yoshioka Hiroki, Shim Junbo, Wassif Christopher A, Porter Forbes D, Iwata Junichi
1Department of Diagnostic & Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Dentistry, Houston, TX USA.
2Center for Craniofacial Research, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Dentistry, Houston, TX USA.
Bone Res. 2020 Jan 2;8:1. doi: 10.1038/s41413-019-0078-3. eCollection 2020.
Human linkage studies suggest that craniofacial deformities result from either genetic mutations related to cholesterol metabolism or high-cholesterol maternal diets. However, little is known about the precise roles of intracellular cholesterol metabolism in the development of craniofacial bones, the majority of which are formed through intramembranous ossification. Here, we show that an altered cholesterol metabolic status results in abnormal osteogenesis through dysregulation of primary cilium formation during bone formation. We found that cholesterol metabolic aberrations, induced through disruption of either (which encodes an enzyme involved in cholesterol synthesis) or and (which provide a negative feedback mechanism for cholesterol biosynthesis), result in osteoblast differentiation abnormalities. Notably, the primary cilia responsible for sensing extracellular cues were altered in number and length through dysregulated ciliary vesicle fusion in and mutant osteoblasts. As a consequence, WNT/β-catenin and hedgehog signaling activities were altered through dysregulated primary cilium formation. Strikingly, the normalization of defective cholesterol metabolism by simvastatin, a drug used in the treatment of cholesterol metabolic aberrations, rescued the abnormalities in both ciliogenesis and osteogenesis in vitro and in vivo. Thus, our results indicate that proper intracellular cholesterol status is crucial for primary cilium formation during skull formation and homeostasis.
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