Expression data from hypervitaminosis A rat diaphyseal bone

Vitamin A is the only known compound that produces spontaneous fractures in rats. In an effort to resolve the molecular mechanism behind this effect, we fed young rats high doses of vitamin A and performed a global transcriptional analysis of diaphyseal bone after one week, i.e. just before the first fractures appeared. Microarray gene expression analysis revealed that 68 transcripts were differentially expressed in hypervitaminotic cortical bone and 118 transcripts were found when the bone marrow was also included. 98% of the differentially expressed genes in the bone marrow sample were up-regulated. In contrast, hypervitaminotic cortical bone without marrow showed reduced expression of 37% of differentially expressed genes. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis revealed that only samples containing bone marrow were associated to a GO term, which principally represented extracellular matrix (ECM). This is consistent with the histological findings of increased endosteal bone formation. Four of the genes in this ECM cluster and four other genes, including Cyp26b1 which is known to be up-regulated by vitamin A, were selected and verified by real-time PCR. In addition, immunohistochemical staining of bone sections confirmed that the bone-specific molecule, osteoadherin (Omd) was up-regulated. Further analysis of the major gene expression changes revealed distinct differences between cortical bone and bone marrow, e.g. there appeared to be augmented Wnt signaling in the bone marrow but reduced Wnt signaling in cortical bone. Moreover, induced expression of hypoxia-associated genes was only found in samples containing bone marrow. Together, these results corroborate our previous observations of compartment-specific effects of vitamin A, with reduced periosteal but increased endosteal bone formation, and suggest important roles for Wnt signaling and hypoxia in the processes leading to spontaneous fractures.

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Lind T, Hu L, Lind PM, Sugars R, Andersson G, Jacobson A, Melhus H