Temporal gene expression profiling during rat femoral marrow ablation-induced intramembranous bone regeneration

Enhanced understanding of differential gene expression and biological pathways associated with distinct phases of intramembranous bone regeneration following femoral marrow ablation surgery will improve future advancements regarding osseointegration of joint replacement implants, biomaterials design, and bone tissue engineering. A rat femoral marrow ablation model was performed and genome-wide microarray data were obtained from samples at 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 28, and 56 days post-ablation, with intact bones serving as controls at Day 0. Bayesian model-based clustering produced eight distinct groups amongst 9,062 significant gene probe sets based on similar temporal expression profiles, which were further categorized into three major temporal classes of increased, variable, and decreased expression. Osteoblastic- and osteoclastic-associated genes were found to be significantly expressed within the increased expression groups. Chondrogenesis was not detected histologically. Adipogenic marker genes were found within variable/decreased expression groups, emphasizing that adipogenesis was inhibited during osteogenesis. Differential biological processes and pathways associated with each major temporal group were identified, and significantly expressed genes involved were visually represented by heat maps. It was determined that the increased expression group exclusively contains genes involved in pathways for matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), Wnt signaling, TGF-β signaling, and inflammatory pathways. Only the variable expression group contains genes associated with glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, the notch signaling pathway, natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, and the B cell receptor signaling pathway. The decreased group exclusively consists of genes involved in heme biosynthesis, the p53 signaling pathway, and the hematopoietic cell lineage. Significant biological pathways and transcription factors expressed at each time point post-ablation were also identified. These data present the first temporal gene expression profiling analysis of the rat genome during intramembranous bone regeneration induced by femoral marrow ablation.