During bone remodeling, there is requirement of differentiation of osteoblastic cells. Previously, we identified proteins differentially expressed in soft tissue during bone healing. Of these proteins, we focused the effect of LTF on differentiation of osteoblast. In order to analyze the osteogenic ability of LTF, we treated conditioned media collected from human LTF-stably transfected HEK293T cells into osteoblastic MC3T3-E1. The results showed that the activity and expression of alkaline phosphatase were increased in MC3T3-E1 cells treated with conditioned media containing LTF in dose- and time-dependent manner. At the same time, we observed the significant increase of the expression of osteoblastic genes, such as ALP, BSP, COL1A1, and OCN, and along with matrix mineralization genes, such as DMP1 and DMP2, in LTF conditioned media-treated groups. Moreover, the result of treating recombinant human LTF directly into osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 showed the same pattern of treating conditioned media containing LTF. Our study demonstrated that LTF constitutively enhances osteoblastic differentiation via induction of osteoblastic genes and activation of matrix mineralization in MC3T3-E1 cells.

• Hee-Young Yang(Department of Oral Biochemistry, Dental Science Research Institute, Medical Research Center for Biomineralization Disorders, School of Dentistry, Chonnam National University)
• Ha-Mi Lee(Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University)
• Byung-Ju Park(Department of Oral Biochemistry, Dental Science Research Institute, Medical Research Center for Biomineralization Disorders, School of Dentistry, Chonnam National University)
• Tae-Hoon Lee(Department of Oral Biochemistry, Dental Science Research Institute, Medical Research Center for Biomineralization Disorders, School of Dentistry, Chonnam National University, Department of Molecular Medicine, Graduate School, Chonnam National University, Tae-Hoon Lee, Department of Biochemistry, School of Dentistry, Chonnam National University) Correspondence to