Acidic pH environment induces autophagy in osteoblasts

Osteoblasts (OBs) play an important role in bone fracture healing, yet the extreme adverse microenvironment in fracture sites has a negative impact on the survival of OBs. Therefore, it is important to study how OBs behave in the complex fracture microenvironment. Studies have shown that autophagy plays a pivotal role in maintaining cellular homeostasis and defending the cell against adverse microenvironments. In this study we found the induction of autophagy in OBs at femoral bone fracture sites, which may be a result of ischemia, oxidative stress and hypoxia within the local area. At fracture sites a low pH environment also developed. Until now it has been unclear whether the induction of autophagy in osteoblasts is triggered by the acidic pH environment. Therefore, we cultured OBs in vitro in media of different pH values, and found both autophagy and apoptosis increased in OBs in acidic conditions. However, when autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) was used, apoptosis increased significantly compared with that without CQ. Thus indicating that inhibition of autophagy may promote apoptosis in OBs in an acidic environment, which may provide a new therapeutic strategy to decrease cell apoptosis in OBs through the use of drugs that modulate the autophagic state.