Epigenetic inhibition of Wnt pathway suppresses osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs during osteoporosis

Disrupted Wnt signaling in osteoblastic-lineage cells leads to bone formation defect in osteoporosis. However, the factors repressing Wnt signaling are unclear. In our study, we found that Wnt signaling was suppressed persistently in bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) during osteoporosis. Accordingly, histone acetylation levels on Wnt genes (Wnt1, Wnt6, Wnt10a, and Wnt10b) were declined in BMSCs from OVX mice. By screening the family of histone acetyltransferase, we identified that GCN5 expression increased during osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs, whereas decreased after osteoporosis. Further analysis revealed that GCN5 promoted osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs by increasing acetylation on histone 3 lysine 9 loci on the promoters of Wnt genes. Reduced GCN5 expression suppressed Wnt signaling, resulting in osteogenic defect of BMSCs from OVX mice. Moreover, restoring GCN5 levels recovered BMSC osteogenic differentiation, and attenuated bone loss in OVX mice. Taken together, our study demonstrated that disrupted histone acetylation modification in BMSCs lead to bone formation defect during osteoporosis. The findings also introduced a novel therapeutic target for osteoporosis.