Human bone cell phenotypes differ depending on their skeletal site of origin

This report describes skeletal site-related differences in human osteoblastic cell metabolism in studies of four patients. Northern analyses of the constitutive growth factor messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression pattern in mandibular and iliac crest-derived human osteoblastic cells (based on within-patient comparisons) revealed higher mRNA levels for strong mitogenic growth factors such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) in the rapidly proliferating and less alkaline phosphatase (ALP)-expressing mandibular osteoblastic cells compared to those in the lower bFGF and IGF-II mRNA levels in slowly proliferating iliac human osteoblastic cells exhibiting a higher ALP expression level. In contrast, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF beta) mRNA was more abundant in iliac human osteoblastic cells than in mandibular osteoblastic cells. Furthermore, we found that there was a proportionality, based on data from both sites, between the level of constitutive TGF beta mRNA and the response to exogenously administered bFGF or IGF-II. A comparable pattern of growth characteristics and mRNA expression was also observed in transformed human osteoblastic cells that had been subcloned in sublines expressing high and low levels of the human osteoblastic differentiation marker ALP. These findings are consistent with 1) skeletal site-related differences in human bone cell phenotypes, and 2) decreased IGF-II and bFGF expression and increased TGF beta expression and responsiveness to bFGF and IGF-II in human bone cells exhibiting a high ALP expression.