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© The Rockefeller University Press,
0021-9525/1999//1097 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 147, Number 5,
, 1999 1097-1108
Original Article |
Matrix Gla Protein Is a Developmental Regulator of Chondrocyte Mineralization And, When Constitutively Expressed, Blocks Endochondral and Intramembranous Ossification in the Limb
Matrix GLA protein (MGP), a
-carboxyglutamic acid (GLA)–rich, vitamin K–dependent and apatite-binding protein, is a regulator of hypertrophic cartilage mineralization during development. However, MGP is produced by both hypertrophic and immature chondrocytes, suggesting that MGP's role in mineralization is cell stage–dependent, and that MGP may have other roles in immature cells. It is also unclear whether MGP regulates the quantity of mineral or mineral nature and quality as well. To address these issues, we determined the effects of manipulations of MGP synthesis and expression in (a) immature and hypertrophic chondrocyte cultures and (b) the chick limb bud in vivo. The two chondrocyte cultures displayed comparable levels of MGP gene expression. Yet, treatment with warfarin, a -carboxylase inhibitor and vitamin K antagonist, triggered mineralization in hypertrophic but not immature cultures. Warfarin effects on mineralization were highly selective, were accompanied by no appreciable changes in MGP expression, alkaline phosphatase activity, or cell number, and were counteracted by vitamin K cotreatment. Scanning electron microscopy, x-ray microanalysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that mineral forming in control and warfarin-treated hypertrophic cell cultures was similar and represented stoichiometric apatite. Virally driven MGP overexpression in cultured chondrocytes greatly decreased mineralization. Surprisingly, MGP overexpression in the developing limb not only inhibited cartilage mineralization, but also delayed chondrocyte maturation and blocked endochondral ossification and formation of a diaphyseal intramembranous bone collar. The results show that MGP is a powerful but developmentally regulated inhibitor of cartilage mineralization, controls mineral quantity but not type, and appears to have a previously unsuspected role in regulating chondrocyte maturation and ossification processes.
Key Words: chondrocytes • matrix GLA protein • mineralization • ossification • limb development
© 1999 The Rockefeller University Press
J.-Y. Suh's current address is Department of Periodontology, Kyunpook National University Dental School, 2-101 Dongin-dong, Joong-Gu, Taegu, Korea 700-422.Abbreviations used in this paper: APase, alkaline phosphatase; FT-IR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; GLA,
'''carboxyglutamic acid; MGP, matrix GLA protein; pNP, p-nitrophenyl phosphate; RT-PCR, reverse transcriptase PCR; SEM, scanning electron microscopy.
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