Different Magnitudes of Tensile Strain Induce Human Osteoblasts Differentiation Associated with the Activation of ERK1/2 Phosphorylation

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Junfeng Zhu¹  Xiaoling Zhang²  Chengtao Wang³  Xiaochun Peng¹ 

[1] Department of Orthopaedics, Shanghai the 6th People’s Hospital, Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200233, China. E-Mails:;Institute of Health Science, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200025, China. E-Mail:;School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200030, China. E-Mail:

关键词: Prosthesis;    Strain;    Finite element;    Osteoblast;    Differentiation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms9122322

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Mechanical factors are related to periprosthetic osseointegration following total hip arthroplasty. However, osteoblast response to strain in implanted femurs is unclear because of the absence of accurate stress-measuring methods. In our study, finite element analysis was performed to calculate strain distribution in implanted femurs. 0.8-3.2% tensile strain was then applied to human osteoblasts. Higher magnitudes of strain enhanced the expression of osteocalcin, type I collagen, and Cbfa1/Runx2. Lower magnitudes significantly increased ALP activity. Among these, type I collagen expression increased with the activation of ERK1/2 phosphorylation in a strain-magnitude-dependent manner. Our study marks the first investigation of osteoblast response at different magnitudes of periprosthetic strain. The results indicate that the functional status of human osteoblasts is determined by strain magnitude. The strain distribution in the proximal region of implanted femur should be improved for osseointegration.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2008 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).