5′-hydroxy Auraptene stimulates osteoblast differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells via a BMP-dependent mechanism

BACKGROUND: Identifying bone anabolic agents is a superior strategy for the treatment of osteoporosis. Naturally, derived coumarin derivatives have shown osteoanabolic effect in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we investigated the effect of 5′-Hydroxy Auraptene (5′-HA), a coumarin derivative that newly isolated from Lotus lalambensis Schweinf on the differentiation of the mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal (skeletal) stem cells (mBMSCs) into osteoblast and adipocyte. METHODS: The effect of 5′-HA on mBMSCs cell proliferation and osteoblast differentiation was assessed by measuring cell viability, quantitative alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assay, Alizarin red staining for matrix mineralization and osteogenic gene array expression. Adipogenesis was measured by Oil Red O staining and quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) analysis of adipogenic markers. Regulation of BMPs signaling pathways by 5′-HA was measured by Western blot analysis and qPCR. RESULTS: 5′-HA showed to stimulate the differentiation of mBMSCs into osteogenic cell lineage in a dose-dependent manner, without affecting their differentiation into adipocytic cell lineage. Treatment of mBMSCs with 5′-HA showed to promote significantly the BMP2-induced osteogenesis in mBMSCs via activating Smad1/5/8 phosphorylation and increasing Smad4 expression. Blocking of BMP signaling using BMPR1 selective inhibitor LDN-193189 significantly inhibited the stimulatory effect of 5′-HA on osteogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Our data identified 5′-HA, as a novel coumarin derivative that function to stimulate the differentiation of mBMSCs into osteoblasts in BMP-signaling dependent mechanism. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12929-019-0544-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.