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Housekeeping gene stability influences the quantification of osteogenic markers during stem cell differentiation to the osteogenic lineage

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Abstract

Real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) relies on a housekeeping or normalizer gene whose expression remains constant throughout the experiment. RT-qPCR is commonly used for characterization of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs). However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies validating the expression stability of the genes used as normalizers during hBMSCs differentiation. This work aimed to study the stability of the housekeeping genes β-actin, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and ribosomal protein L13A (RPL13A) during the osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs. Their stability was evaluated via RT-qPCR in 14 and 20 day differentiation assays to the osteogenic lineage. Different normalization strategies were evaluated to quantify the osteogenic markers collagen type I, bone sialoprotein and osteonectin. Cell differentiation was confirmed via alizarin red staining. The results demonstrated up-regulation of β-actin with maximum fold changes (MFC) of 4.38. GAPDH and RPL13A were not regulated by osteogenic media after 14 days and presented average fold changes lower than 2 in 20 day cultures. RPL13A (MFC < 2) had a greater stability when normalizing as a function of culture time compared with GAPDH (MFC ≤ 2.2), which resulted in expression patterns of the osteogenic markers more consistent with the observed differentiation process. The results suggest that β-actin regulation could be associated with the morphological changes characteristic of hBMSCs osteogenic differentiation, and provide evidence for the superior performance of RPL13A as a normalizer gene in osteogenic differentiation studies of hBMSCs. This work highlights the importance of validating the normalizer genes used for stem cells characterization via RT-qPCR.

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Abbreviations

RT-qPCR:

Quantitative reverse transcription PCR

hBMSCs:

Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

ACTB:

β-actin

GAPDH:

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase

RPL13A:

Ribosomal protein L13A

CI:

Collagen type I

ON:

Osteonectin

BSP:

Bone sialoprotein

NO:

Non-osteogenic medium

OM:

Osteogenic medium

ARS:

Alizarin red staining

AFC:

Average fold changes from the mean threshold cycle

MFC:

Average maximum fold changes

CT:

Threshold cycle

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Acknowledgments

This project was partially funded by Colciencias (Colombian research foundation). The authors are grateful to the patients that participated in this study and to the healthcare institutions Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe and Clínica Leon XIII, as well as to Dr. Daniel Estes (University of Michigan, USA) and Professors Juan A. López (University of Antioquia, Colombia) and Mauricio Rojas (University of Antioquia, Colombia) for their critical review of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Investigación en Ingeniería Biomédica EIA-CES (GIBEC), Escuela de Ingeniería de Antioquia, Universidad CES, Envigado-Medellin, Colombia

    Felipe Garcia Quiroz, Olga M. Posada, Natalia Higuita-Castro & Luis E. López

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Nanotech West Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Daniel Gallego-Perez, Natalia Higuita-Castro & Derek J. Hansford

  3. Orthopedics Department, Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe, Medellin, Colombia

    Carlos Sarassa

  4. Universidad CES - Instituto Colombiano de Medicina Tropical (ICMT), Sabaneta, Colombia

    Piedad Agudelo-Florez

  5. 101 Science Drive, Durham, NC, 27705, USA

    Felipe Garcia Quiroz

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  1. Felipe Garcia Quiroz
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  2. Olga M. Posada
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  3. Daniel Gallego-Perez
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  4. Natalia Higuita-Castro
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  5. Carlos Sarassa
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  6. Derek J. Hansford
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  7. Piedad Agudelo-Florez
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  8. Luis E. López
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Correspondence to Felipe Garcia Quiroz.

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Quiroz, F.G., Posada, O.M., Gallego-Perez, D. et al. Housekeeping gene stability influences the quantification of osteogenic markers during stem cell differentiation to the osteogenic lineage. Cytotechnology 62, 109–120 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-010-9265-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-010-9265-1

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