Interplay of Nkx3.2, Sox9 and Pax3 Regulates Chondrogenic Differentiation of Muscle Progenitor Cells

Muscle satellite cells make up a stem cell population that is capable of differentiating into myocytes and contributing to muscle regeneration upon injury. In this work we investigate the mechanism by which these muscle progenitor cells adopt an alternative cell fate, the cartilage fate. We show that chick muscle satellite cells that normally would undergo myogenesis can be converted to express cartilage matrix proteins in vitro when cultured in chondrogenic medium containing TGFß3 or BMP2. In the meantime, the myogenic program is repressed, suggesting that muscle satellite cells have undergone chondrogenic differentiation. Furthermore, ectopic expression of the myogenic factor Pax3 prevents chondrogenesis in these cells, while chondrogenic factors Nkx3.2 and Sox9 act downstream of TGFß or BMP2 to promote this cell fate transition. We found that Nkx3.2 and Sox9 repress the activity of the Pax3 promoter and that Nkx3.2 acts as a transcriptional repressor in this process. Importantly, a reverse function mutant of Nkx3.2 blocks the ability of Sox9 to both inhibit myogenesis and induce chondrogenesis, suggesting that Nkx3.2 is required for Sox9 to promote chondrogenic differentiation in satellite cells. Finally, we found that in an in vivo mouse model of fracture healing where muscle progenitor cells were lineage-traced, Nkx3.2 and Sox9 are significantly upregulated while Pax3 is significantly downregulated in the muscle progenitor cells that give rise to chondrocytes during fracture repair. Thus our in vitro and in vivo analyses suggest that the balance of Pax3, Nkx3.2 and Sox9 may act as a molecular switch during the chondrogenic differentiation of muscle progenitor cells, which may be important for fracture healing

Modeling and Analysis of the Molecular Basis of Pain in Sensory Neurons

Intracellular calcium dynamics are critical to cellular functions like pain transmission. Extracellular ATP plays an important role in modulating intracellular calcium levels by interacting with the P2 family of surface receptors. In this study, we developed a mechanistic mathematical model of ATP-induced P2 mediated calcium signaling in archetype sensory neurons. The model architecture, which described 90 species connected by 162 interactions, was formulated by aggregating disparate molecular modules from literature. Unlike previous models, only mass action kinetics were used to describe the rate of molecular interactions. Thus, the majority of the 252 unknown model parameters were either association, dissociation or catalytic rate constants. Model parameters were estimated from nine independent data sets taken from multiple laboratories. The training data consisted of both dynamic and steady-state measurements. However, because of the complexity of the calcium network, we were unable to estimate unique model parameters. Instead, we estimated a family or ensemble of probable parameter sets using a multi-objective thermal ensemble method. Each member of the ensemble met an error criterion and was located along or near the optimal trade-off surface between the individual training data sets. The model quantitatively reproduced experimental measurements from dorsal root ganglion neurons as a function of extracellular ATP forcing. Hypothesized architecture linking phosphoinositide regulation with P2X receptor activity explained the inhibition of P2X-mediated current flow by activated metabotropic P2Y receptors. Sensitivity analysis using individual and the whole system outputs suggested which molecular subsystems were most important following P2 activation. Taken together, modeling and analysis of ATP-induced P2 mediated calcium signaling generated qualitative insight into the critical interactions controlling ATP induced calcium dynamics. Understanding these critical interactions may prove useful for the design of the next generation of molecular pain management strategies

CaMKIIα, a modulator of M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are subject to the regulation by protein kinases. By controlling the phosphorylation-dephosphorylation balance, protein kinases actively modify GPCR expression and function. In a recent study, we have identified a novel phosphorylation-dependent regulation of Gαi/o-coupled muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. A synapse-enriched protein kinase, Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKIIα), binds directly and selectively to second intracellular loops of muscarinic M4 receptors (M4Rs). This Ca2+-sensitive binding enables CaMKIIα to phosphorylate M4Rs at a selective threonine residue. In rat striatal neurons which abundantly express M4Rs, rapid cytoplasmic Ca2+ rises enhance the association of CaMKIIα with M4Rs and increase threonine phosphorylation of the receptor. This CaMKIIα-mediated phosphorylation results in a potentiation of M4R activity, which is critical for controlling cellular and behavioral responsivity to dopamine stimulation. In sum, our data identify a novel kinase-GPCR interaction. Through a Ca2+/activity-sensitive manner, CaMKIIα contributes to maintaining acetylcholine-dopamine homeostasis in the basal ganglia

Single nucleotide polymorphisms of the human M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor gene

The gene encoding the human muscarinic receptor, type 1 (CHRM1), was genotyped from 245 samples of the Coriell Collection (Coriell Institute for Medical Research, Camden, NJ). Fifteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were discovered, 9 of which are located in the coding region of the receptor. Of these, 8 represent synonymous SNPs, indicating that CHRM1 is highly conserved in humans. Only a single allele was found to contain a nonsynonymous SNP, which encodes an amino acid change of Cys to Arg at position 417. This may have functional consequences because a C417S point mutation in rat M1 was previously shown to affect receptor binding and coupling. Furthermore, 0 of 4 SNPs within CHRM1 previously deduced from sequencing of the human genome were found in this study despite a prediction that a majority of such inferred SNPs are accurate. The consensus sequence of CHRM1 obtained in our study differs from the deposited reference sequence (AC NM_000738) in 2 adjacent nucleotides, leading to a V173M change, suggesting a sequencing error in the reference sequence. The extraordinary sequence conservation of the CHRM1 gene-coding region was unexpected as M1-knockout mice show only minimal functional impairments