Autophagy Regulates Craniofacial Bone Acquisition

In this study, we investigated the effect of autophagy suppression on craniofacial bone acquisition by deletingFip200 orAtg5, two essential autophagy genes, usingOsterix-Cre (Osx-Cre). We found that theOsx-Cre transgene mildly decreased the bone mass of parietal bone but not frontal bone, and did not affect cranial base bone mass in adult mice. In the cranial vault,Fip200 orAtg5 deletion similarly decreased 50% bone mass of neural crest-derived frontal bone;Atg5 deletion decreased 50% andFip200 deletion decreased 30% bone mass of mesoderm-derived parietal bone. In the cranial base,Fip200 orAtg5 deletion similarly decreased 30% bone mass of neural crest-derived presphenoid bone;Atg5 deletion decreased 30% andFip200 deletion decreased 16% bone mass of mesoderm-derive basioccipital bone. Lastly, we used doxycycline treatment to inhibit theOsx-Cre expression until 2  months of age and showed that postnatalFip200 deletion led to cranial vault bone mass decrease in association with a small increase in both bone volume/tissue volume and tissue mineral density. Altogether, this study demonstrated the important role of autophagy in craniofacial bone acquisition during development and postnatal growth.
Source: Calcified Tissue International - Category: Orthopaedics Source Type: research