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Updated: Nov 27, 2025
Skeletal Phenotype Analysis of a Conditional Stat3 Deletion Mouse Model
Published on: July 3, 2020
NT-3 promotes osteogenic differentiation of mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells by regulating the Akt pathway
Shanqiang Zhang1,2, Shizhu Sun2, Jun He2
1Medical Research Center, Yue Bei People's Hospital Affiliated to Shantou University Medical College, P.R. China.
Objectives:
To investigate the effect of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) on osteogenic/adipogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs).
Methods:
Osteogenic differentiation was detected by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining and alizarin red staining (ARS). Adipogenic differentiation was detected by oil red O (ORO) staining. The expression of bone-related genes (Runx2, Osterix, OCN, ALP) and lipogenic genes (FABP4, PPAR, CEBP, LPL) was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time qPCR). The expression of p-Akt and Akt protein was detected by Western blot assay.
Results:
ALP staining and ARS staining showed that the overexpression of NT-3 could promote the differentiation into osteoblasts, while knockdown of NT-3 could inhibit that. Real-time qPCR showed that the overexpression of NT-3 could increase the expression of osteoblast genes, while knockdown of NT-3 could inhibit that. ORO staining showed that the overexpression of NT-3 could inhibit the differentiation into adipogenesis, while knockdown of NT-3 can promote that. Real-time qPCR showed that the overexpression of NT-3 could reduce the expression of lipogenic genes. while knockdown NT-3 could increase that. In addition, the overexpression of NT-3 increased p-Akt/Akt levels significantly, while knockdown NT-3 reduced that significantly.
Conclusion:
NT-3 could promote the differentiation of mouse BMSCs into osteoblasts and inhibit their differentiation into adipogenesis.
