Mer tyrosine kinase regulates bone metabolism, and its deficiency partially ameliorates periodontitis- and ovariectomy-induced bone loss in mice

Abstract Bone homeostasis is maintained by tightly coordinated activities of bone-forming osteoblasts and bone-resorbing osteoclasts. In the present report, the role of Mer tyrosine kinase (MerTK) in bone metabolism was investigated. The expression of MerTK decreased upon BMP2 stimulation of osteoblast precursors. The femurs of Mertk-deficient mice showed significantly increased bone volume with concomitant increase of bone formation and reduction in bone resorption. These bone phenotypes were attributed to the increased osteoblast differentiation and mineralization accounted by the enhanced β-catenin and Smad signaling in the absence of MerTK in osteoblast precursors. Although the Mertk-deficient bone marrow macrophages were predisposed to enhanced osteoclast differentiation via augmented Ca2+-NFATc1 signaling, the dramatic increase of Tnfsf11b/Tnfsf11 (Opg/Rankl) ratio in Mertk knockout bones and osteoblast precursors corroborated the reduction of osteoclastogenesis in Mertk deficiency. In ligature-induced periodontitis and ovariectomy models, the bone resorption was significantly attenuated in Mertk-deficient mice compared with wild-type control. Taken together, these data indicate novel role of MerTK in bone metabolism and suggest a potential strategy targeting MerTK in treating bone-lytic diseases including periodontitis and osteoporosis.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  JBMR Plus

• Publication date

  2024-01-04

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1093/jbmrpl/ziad014PMID 38505527PMCID 10945713
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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