Thy‐1 knockdown promotes the osteogenic differentiation of GMSCs via the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway

Abstract

AbstractGingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs) are newly developed seed cells for tissue engineering owing to their easy isolation, abundance and high growth rates. Thy‐1 is an important regulatory molecule in the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In this study, we investigated the function of Thy‐1 in the osteogenic differentiation of GMSCs by reducing the expression of Thy‐1 using a lentivirus. The results demonstrated that Thy‐1 knockdown promoted the osteogenic differentiation of GMSCs in vitro. Validation by RNA‐seq revealed an obvious decrease in Vcam1 and Sox9 gene expression with Thy‐1 knockdown. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis suggested that the differentially expressed genes were enriched in the Wnt signalling pathway. We further demonstrated that Thy‐1 knockdown promoted osteogenic differentiation of GMSCs by activating the Wnt/β‐catenin signalling pathway. Therefore, Thy‐1 has a key regulatory role in the differentiation of GMSCs and maybe a core molecule connecting transcription factors related to the differentiation of MSCs. Our study also highlighted the potential of Thy‐1 to modify MSCs, which may help improve their use in tissue engineering.