Lithium and Copper Induce the Osteogenesis-Angiogenesis Coupling of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells via Crosstalk between Canonical Wnt and HIF-1 α Signaling Pathways

Zhen Tan; Baochun Zhou; Jianrui Zheng; Yongcan Huang; Hui Zeng; Lixiang Xue; Deli Wang

doi:10.1155/2021/6662164

Lithium and Copper Induce the Osteogenesis-Angiogenesis Coupling of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells via Crosstalk between Canonical Wnt and HIF-1 α Signaling Pathways

Stem Cells Int. 2021 Mar 6:2021:6662164. doi: 10.1155/2021/6662164. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Zhen Tan¹, Baochun Zhou^{2

3}, Jianrui Zheng^{2

3}, Yongcan Huang^{4

5}, Hui Zeng^{1

2

3}, Lixiang Xue⁶, Deli Wang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bone and Joint Surgery, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen Peking University-The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Medical Center, Shenzhen 518036, China.
² National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Orthopaedic Biomaterials, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518036, China.
³ Department of Bone and Joint Surgery, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518036, China.
⁴ Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Orthopaedic Regenerative Technologies, Orthopaedic Research Center, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518036, China.
⁵ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Spine Surgery, Department of Spine Surgery, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518036, China.
⁶ Center of Basic Medical Research, Peking University Third Hospital Institute of Medical Innovation and Research, Beijing 100191, China.

Abstract

The combination of osteogenesis and angiogenesis dual-delivery trace element-carrying bioactive scaffolds and stem cells is a promising method for bone regeneration and repair. Canonical Wnt and HIF-1α signaling pathways are vital for BMSCs' osteogenic differentiation and secretion of osteogenic factors, respectively. Simultaneously, lithium (Li) and copper (Cu) can activate the canonical Wnt and HIF-1α signaling pathway, respectively. Moreover, emerging evidence has shown that the canonical Wnt and HIF signaling pathways are related to coupling osteogenesis and angiogenesis. However, it is still unclear whether the lithium- and copper-doped bioactive scaffold can induce the coupling of the osteogenesis and angiogenesis in BMSCs and the underlying mechanism. So, we fabricated a lithium- (Li⁺-) and copper- (Cu²⁺-) doped organic/inorganic (Li 2.5-Cu 1.0-HA/Col) scaffold to evaluate the coupling osteogenesis and angiogenesis effects of lithium and copper on BMSCs and further explore its mechanism. We investigated that the sustained release of lithium and copper from the Li 2.5-Cu 1.0-HA/Col scaffold could couple the osteogenesis- and angiogenesis-related factor secretion in BMSCs seeding on it. Moreover, our results showed that 500 μM Li⁺ could activate the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and rescue the XAV-939 inhibition on it. In addition, we demonstrated that the 25 μM Cu²⁺ was similar to 1% oxygen environment in terms of the effectiveness of activating the HIF-1α signaling pathway. More importantly, the combination stimuli of Li⁺ and Cu²⁺ could couple the osteogenesis and angiogenesis process and further upregulate the osteogenesis- and angiogenesis-related gene expression via crosstalk between the canonical Wnt and HIF-1α signaling pathway. In conclusion, this study revealed that lithium and copper could crosstalk between the canonical Wnt and HIF-1α signaling pathways to couple the osteogenesis and angiogenesis in BMSCs when they are sustainably released from the Li-Cu-HA/Col scaffold.