Hematology (Dec 2023)

Iron regulates chondrocyte phenotype in haemophilic cartilage through the PTEN/PI3 K/AKT/FOXO1 pathway

  • Liujie Zheng,
  • Yunfeng Yao,
  • Dasheng Luo,
  • Zhiwei Han,
  • Xin Zhang,
  • Nanyu Pang,
  • Mingyang Ding,
  • Houlong Ye,
  • Keyan Zhu,
  • Wenkai Yi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/16078454.2023.2240585
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 28, no. 1

Abstract

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ABSTRACTObjective Our previous study demonstrated that iron overload could lead to haemophilic cartilage destruction by changing chondrocyte phenotype. This change was caused by iron’s effect on chondrocyte expression of FGF23 and SOX9, in addition to iron-induced chondrocyte apoptosis and cartilage extracellular matrix degradation. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to determine the mechanism by which iron influences chondrocyte phenotype in the pathogenesis of haemophilic cartilage destruction.Methods The expression of the PTEN/PI3K/AKT/FOXO1 signal pathway in the articular cartilage of patients with haemophilic arthritis (HA) or osteoarthritis (OA) was determined using western blot (WB). Additionally, we quantified the expression of iron-induced PTEN, PI3K, p-PI3K, AKT, p-AKT, FOXO1, and p-FOXO1 in primary human normal chondrocyte cells (HUM-iCell-s018) using WB.Results We found that compared to that in patients with OA, the expression of PTEN, PI3K, AKT, and FOXO1 in the articular cartilage of patients with HA was up-regulated, while the expression of p-PI3K, p-AKT, and p-FOXO1 was down-regulated. Additionally, iron increased the expression of PTEN, PI3K, AKT, and FOXO1 and suppressed that of p-PI3K, p-AKT, and p-FOXO1 in chondrocytes in a dose-dependent manner.Conclusions Our findings demonstrated that iron was involved in the pathogenesis of haemophilic cartilage destruction by affecting chondrocyte phenotype through the inhibition of the PTEN/PI3K/AKT/FOXO1 pathway.

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