Background
Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common chronic diseases among aged population [
1,
2]. Various factors, for example, abnormal joint development, joint injury, overweight, inherent factor and aging, contribute to the pathophysiology of OA [
3,
4]. Although OA and aging are not inter-related, the onset and progression of the former is closely related to the later [
5]. During the process of aging, senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), which includes growth factors (such as TNF-β), pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-6, IL-8, IL-1α) and matrix remodeling regulatory metalloproteases (such as MMP1 and MMP13) [
6], expressed highly. SASP is able to induce inflammation that may lead to low-grade chronic inflammation and invovled in degenerative disorders including OA [
7‐
10]. Viewed from the molecular perspective, OA is an outcome of cartilage degradation. The hallmark event in OA is the extracellular matrix degradation of articular cartilage [
11]. Type II procollagen (COL2A1) helps maintain skeletal structure of cartilage [
12]. The degradation of COL2A1 in cartilage matrix is critical in initiating cartilage degradation. So far, OA remains difficult to be treated, and the treatment strategies are largely restricted to symptom management [
13]. Thus, preventing destruction of COL2A1 and the secretion of SASP may be helpful to delay the progression of OA.
The transcript of p16INK4a derives from alternative splicing of
INK4a/ARF [
14]. By binding to CDK4 and CDK6 and repressing phosphorylation of pRb, p16INK4a is well known as a cell cycle regulator [
15]. Moreover, the increased expression of p16INK4a is often accompanied with cell senescence [
16,
17].In addition, dysregulation of p16INK4a is common among human cancers [
14,
18]. Researchers suggested that p16INK4a may participate in tumor cell escape from senescence [
19,
20]. E2F2 is also a transcription factor that belongs to E2F family. Similar to p16INK4a, E2F2 takes part in cell cycle regulation [
21,
22]. It has been reported that E2Fs could be released from pRb and could promote the G1/S. In addition, E2F2 can also maintain quiescence by repressing cell cycle regulators [
21]. Researchers have proved that the transfection of E2F decoy oligodeoxynucleotides was helpful in preventing the generation of MMP-1, IL-1β and IL-6 [
23]. As an apparent increase of E2F2 has been observed by researchers in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial tissues [
24], thus, it can be speculated that p16INK4a and E2F2 may participate in the progression of OA.
The aim of this study was to investigate the potential roles of p16INK4a and E2F2 in OA and to examine possible relations between p16INK4a and E2F2 in OA. The current study would expand the current understanding on pathophysiology of OA and provide promising drug target candidates for treating OA.
Methods
Cell culture
Human chondrocytes (#4650, ScienCell, USA) were cryopreserved at P0 and delivered frozen. The cells were cultured in DMEM/F-12 (Gibco, USA) containing 10% FBS at 37 °C. The medium was supplemented with 100 U/ml and penicillin/streptomycin. As previously described [
25‐
27], recombinant IL-1β (R&D Systems) (10 ng/ml) was used to induce cartilage injury for 48 h. Experiments were performed independently for at least 3 times.
Cell transfection
The cells (1.0 × 10
5 cells per well) were seeded into 24-well plate. Prior to transfection, the cells have been starved overnight. pCMV-HA vector was a gift from Christopher A Walsh (Addgene plasmid #32530), pCMV-p16 INK4A was a gift from Bob Weinberg, (Addgene plasmid # 10916) and pCMV-HA-E2F2 was a gift from KristianHelin (Addgene plasmid # 24226) [
28,
29]. The E2F2 siRNA (MBS8214676) and siRNA negative control (MBS8241404) were purchased from MyBio Source. The plasmid was transfected into the cells using Lipo 3000 Reagent (Life Science, USA). After being transfected for 6 h, the cells were maintained in fresh medium supplemented with 10% FBS and then prepared for the subsequent experiments.
Cell proliferation assay
Cells (4000 cells/well) were plated into 24-well tissue culture plates (Corning Inc., Corning, NY). Cell proliferation was determined by using sulphonatedtetrazolium salt, and 4-[3-(4-iodophenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)-2H-5-tetrazolio]-1 and 3-benzene disulphonate (WST-1) cell counting kits (Beyotime, China), following the manufactory’s instructions. The OD at 450 nm was read using a microplate reader (Biorad, USA).
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) assay
The cells were harvested and centrifuged at 3000 g at 4 °C for 10 min. Following the manufacturer’s protocol, the levels of SASP markers TGFβ, IL-6, IL-8, IL-1α, MMP3 and MMP13 in the collected supernatants were examined using ELISA kits (R&D Systems). The absorbance was read at 405 nm using a micro-plate reader (Bio-rad, USA).
Real-time PCR
Total RNA was isolated from cells using Trizol regent (Life Science) following the manufacturer’sprotocol. cDNA was reversed from total RNA using PrimeScript™ II 1st Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Takara, Japan). Amplification of the target genes from cDNA was performed using SYBR Green real-time PCR Master Mix (ToYoBo, Japan) under the conditions as follows: at 95 °C for 10 s, 40 cycles at 95 °C for 5 s and at 60 °C for 30 s. The primers used for RT-PCR were as follows:
p16INK4a sense: 5′- GCGGG GAGCAGCATGGAGC-3′;
p16INK4a anti-sense: 5′- CCGAATAGTTACG GTCG-3′;
E2F2 sense:5′-CCTTGGAGGCTACTGACAGC-3′;
E2F2antisense: 5′-CCACAGGTAGTCGTCCTGGT-3′;
Col II sense: 5′-CAATCCAGCAAACGTTCCCA-3′;
Col II antisense: 5′-CAGGCGTAGGAAGGTCATCT-3′;
Cdc6 sense: 5′- CAGCTGTTGAACTTCCCACC-3′;
Cdc6 antisense: 5′- GCTCTCCTGCAAACATCCAG-3′;
MCM6 sense: 5′-CCGAAATCCAGTTTGTGCCA-3′;
MCM6 antisense: 5′-TGCTAAGCTTGGAGACGTCA-3′;
β-actin sense: 5’-CTAAGGCCAACCGTGAAAAG-3′;
β-actin antisense: 5’-AACACAGCCTGGATGGCTAC-3′.
Western blot
The cells were collected using cell lysissolution (Sigma) and denatured at 100 °C for 5 min. The protein concentrations were tested using bicinchoninic acid (BCA) Protein Assay Kit (Pierce, USA). Dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel (SDS-PAGE) electrophoresis was performed to separate the proteins. Next, the proteins were transblotted onto nitrocellulose membranes (Amersham, USA). Primary antibodies were added after the membranes have been blocked with 5% not-fat milk. Then, the membranes were maintained at 4 °C overnight. Primary antibodies were as follows: anti-Col2A1 (1:8000, ab34712,abcam), anti-E2F2 (1:1000, ab65222), anti-p16INK4a (1:5000,ab108349) and anti-β-actin (ab8226,1:5000). Secondary antibodies (abcam) were incubated at room temperature for 2 h. The blot bands were developed with Enhanced chemiluminescence (Amersham).The density of bands was quantified using Quantity one 4.6.2.
Statistics
Data were shown as mean ± Standard Deviation (SD). Student’s t test or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) following Dunett’s post hoc tests was used to compare result differences. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Discussion
Tissue deconstruction is a consequence of aging. The integrity and function loss in senescent cells are caused by chronic inflammation and remodel of extracellular matrix [
35,
36]. OA is a degenerative disease accompanied with progressive cartilage degradation. Aging is one of the most significant risk factors in OA [
1,
2]. Although the mechanisms underlies OA awaits to be fully understood, the cartilage integrity is believed to be affected by inflammatory cytokines and matrix remodeling.
In this study, based on a previous study [
37], IL-1β was used to induce the cartilage degradation so as to establish a model of OA. The secretion of SASP markers TGFβ, IL-6, IL-8, IL-1α, MMP3 and MMP13 was found to be increased in response to IL-1β treatment. Moreover, the expression of Col2A1, an index of cartilage degradation [
38], was reduced in IL-1β group in comparison to that in control group. p16INK4a is realted to age-related diseases [
39]. As expected, the expression of p16INK4a was strongly induced by IL-1β. Consistent to our results, a previous study has also pointed out that SASP was exhibited in p16INK4a-positive cells [
36]. A study has also reported that expression of p16INK4a was a biomarker of chondrocyte aging and was correlated with several SASP transcripts even though the loss of p16 did not affect the expression of SASP in mouse [
40].These results revealed that the expression of p16INK4a was positively related to the secretion of SASP during cartilage injury. However, SASP can also be restrained by p16INK4a under some conditions [
41]. The different effect of p16INK4a on SASP may be caused by different cell contexts. In addition, as a transcription factor, E2F2 was increased in RA synovial tissues [
24]. Thus, we determined the expression of E2F2 in IL-1β-treated cells, and found a higher expression of E2F2 in IL-1β group in comparison to that in control group. As a family member of E2F2, E2F1 may have an overlapping function with E2F2. Nevertheless, the expression of E2F1 was not affected by IL-1β.
It has been proved that p16INK4a was able to inhibit cell cycle by targeting CDK4/6, and therefore maintaining the activity of retinoblastoma (pRb) that could control cell fate decision of chondrocytes [
42‐
44]. E2F family members can be released from pocket protein members (retinoblastoma, p107 and p130) and can promote the G1/S progression [
45,
46]. The effect of p16INK4a over-expression was examined in this study. Our results showed that secretion of SASP was promoted by over-expressing p16INK4a. Furthermore, the expressions of Col2A1 and E2F2 were higher in p16INK4a group in comparison to those in control. Taken together, the cartilage injury was expanded by over-expressing p16INK4a. In addition, the increased expression level of E2F2 may exacerbate cartilage injury. Consistently, some recent studies pointed that E2F2 functioned as a repressor of transcription and an inhibitor of cell proliferation in some cell context [
47,
48]. Therefore, it is possible that E2F2 may interact with other proteins or factors functioning as a negative transcriptional regulator [
49].
Subsequent investigations were performed to further determine whether E2F2 was necessary for cartilage injury caused by p16INK4a
. Our results indicated that cartilage injury was induced by over-expressing p16INK4a and E2F2, by increasing the secretion of SASP markers and by repressing the expression of Col2A1. Moreover, we detected the expressions of cell cycle specific genes (CDC6 and MCM6). CDC6 is essential for the assembly of MCM complex in DNA replication and that MCM complex assembly is necessary for cells to enter S-phase [
50].The cell proliferation and the expressions of CDC6 and MCM6 were inhibited by over-expressing p16INK4a or E2F2. The down-regulation of E2F2 in the cells transfected with p16INK4a was observed to recover the cell proliferation and the expressions of CDC6 and MCM6. However, according to previous studies, the peak expressions of CDC6 and MCM6 are in G1/S during DNA replication and are dependent on E2F [
51‐
53]. Thus, it is possible that over-expressing E2F2 might prevent cell cycle progression through competitive inhibition of E2F2 transcriptional activity (though the mechanism underlying such a competitive inhibition was not clear). Taken together, the depletion of E2F2 alleviated cartilage injury caused by p16INK4a, suggesting that E2F2 was necessary for p16INK4a-induced OA progression. Nevertheless, the co-expression of p16INK4a and E2F2 increased the secretion of TGFβ and IL-8 in comparison to over-expressing p16INK4a alone. However, no significant synergistic action of p16INK4a and E2F2 was observed. A previous study has shown that other signals or pathways, for example, p38 MAPK and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling, also took part in cell senescence [
54]. This may be explained by the fact that cartilage degradation is controlled by many other signals and regulators [
55,
56]. Therefore, the molecular mechanism of cartilage degradation still remains to be further investigated.
In addition, microRNAs have also been used in diagnosis of OA. For instance, Researchers have proved that p16INK4a could be regulated by miR-24 during matrix remodeling in OA [
57]. Therefore, it would be helpful for the diagnosis and molecular treatment of OA to explore the same type of regulators of p16INK4a during OA. Although it can be concluded that E2F2 is a downstream target of p16INK4a, unfortunately, within the scope of this study, we were unable to provide a specific explanation about how p16INK4a regulated E2F2. Thus, it would be interesting to study whether SASP markers and/or Col2A1can be directly regulated by E2F2. It is beneficial to further illustrate the molecular pathological of cartilage degradation during OA.