Effect of mRNA co-expression of BMP-2 and TGF-β1 genes on differentiation of rabbit marrow stromal cells into chondrocytes

Abstract

Objective To observe the effect of a bicistronic eukaryotic expression plasmid pIRESbone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2-transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 on the mRNA expression during the chondrocytic differention of bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs). MethodspIRES-BMP-2-TGF-β1,pIRES-BMP-2 and pIRES-TGF-β1 plasmids were transfected to MSCs by lipids. The mRNA expression of type Ⅱ collagen and proteoglycan was detected by using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR)technique. Results At the 2nd, and 4th day after the plasmids of each group were transfected to MSCs,the gene expression in MSCs of each group examined by quantitative PCR showed that type Ⅱ collagen and proteoglycan gene expression levels in MSCs of pIRES-BMP-2-TGF-β1 group were significantly higher than those of pIRES-BMP-2 and pIRES-TGF-β1 groups ( P ＜ 0. 05 ). Conclusion The effect that pIRES-BMP2-TGF-β1 induced MSCs differentiation towards chondrocytes was greater than that of pIRES-BMP-2 or pIRES-TGF-β1 alone. Key words: BMP-2 ; TGF-β1 ; Chondrocytes; Gene; Co-expression