Neuromedin B promotes chondrocyte differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells via calcineurin and calcium signaling

BACKGROUND: Articular cartilage is a complex tissue with poor healing capacities. Current approaches for cartilage repair based on mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are often disappointing because of the lack of relevant differentiation factors that could drive MSC differentiation towards a stable mature chondrocyte phenotype. RESULTS: We used a large-scale transcriptomic approach to identify genes that are modulated at early stages of chondrogenic differentiation using the reference cartilage micropellet model. We identified several modulated genes and selected neuromedin B (NMB) as one of the early and transiently modulated genes. We found that the timely regulated increase of NMB was specific for chondrogenesis and not observed during osteogenesis or adipogenesis. Furthermore, NMB expression levels correlated with the differentiation capacity of MSCs and its inhibition resulted in impaired chondrogenic differentiation indicating that NMB is required for chondrogenesis. We further showed that NMB activated the calcineurin activity through a Ca(2+)-dependent signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: NMB is a newly described chondroinductive bioactive factor that upregulates the key chondrogenic transcription factor Sox9 through the modulation of Ca(2+) signaling pathway and calcineurin activity. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13578-021-00695-1.