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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Epithelial Cell Repopulation and Preparation of Rodent Extracellular Matrix Scaffolds for Renal Tissue Development
Published on: August 10, 2015
Nephronectin promotes osteoblast differentiation via the epidermal growth factor-like repeats
Shireen Kahai1, Shao-Chen Lee, Arun Seth
1Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Abstract:
We found that nephronectin was significantly down-regulated by TGF-beta1. To determine the function of nephronectin in osteogenesis, we generated various constructs to produce stable MC3T3-E1 cell lines, expressing and secreting nephronectin protein, including full-length (Npnt), lacking EGF-like repeats (Np-MAM), and lacking RGD and MAM domains (Np-EGF). We demonstrated that nephronectin promotes differentiation during osteoblast differentiation and the EGF-like repeats were essential. Lack of these repeats resulted in inhibiting the change in morphology. Over-expression of nephronectin results in earlier formation of bone nodules than the vector control. ERK activation is essential for nephronectin-induced osteoblast differentiation.
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