Osteoporosis-related bone fracture and falls have a severe impact on patients' daily lives. Osteoblasts are bone-building cells that play a vital role in bone formation and remodeling. Imbalanced osteoblast differentiation could lead to osteoporosis. GPR39 is an orphan G protein-coupled receptor that mediates metabolic pathways. In this study, we show that GPR39 is expressed in MC3T3-E1 cells. Osteoblast differentiation culture media induces GPR39, suggesting that GPR39 is a differentiation-responsive factor. Activation of GPR39 using its selective agonist TC-G 1008 induces alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteocalcin (OCN), and type I collagen (Col-I) expression, and increases cellular ALP activity and calcium deposition, implying that GPR activation promotes cells toward osteoblast differentiation. Treatment with TC-G 1008 also increases Runx-2 expression and AMPK activation. However, the inhibition of AMPK by Compound C abolished TC-G 1008-mediated ALP, OCN, and Col-I induction, and reduces ALP activity and cellular calcium deposition as well as Runx-2 induction. These data indicate that TC-G 1008-mediated GPR39 activation involves AMPK-mediated Runx-2 induction. In summary, our study uncovers a new role of GPR39 activation in osteoblast differentiation, implying that GPR39 could be a promising therapeutic target for osteoporosis.
Keywords: AMPK; GPR39; MC3T3-E1; Runx-2; TC-G 1008; osteoblast differentiation.