Periodontal ligament (PDL) tissue is a connective tissue that is interposed between the roots of the teeth and the inner wall of the alveolar bone socket. PDL is always exposed to physiologic mechanical force such as masticatory force and PDL cells play important roles during orthodontic tooth movement by synthesizing and secreting different mediators involved in bone remodeling. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway was recently shown to play a significant role in the control of bone formation. In the present study, we applied cyclic tensile stress of 20% elongation to cultured human PDL cells and assessed its impact after six days upon components of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. RTPCR analysis showed that Wnt1a, Wnt3a, Wnt10b and the Wnt receptor LRP5 were down-regulated, whereas the Wnt inhibitor DKK1 was up-regulated in response to these stress conditions. In contrast, little change was detected in the mRNA expression of Wnt5a, Wnt7b, Fz1, and LRP6. By western blotting we found decreased expression of the β-catenin and p-GSK-3β proteins. Our results thus show that mechanical stress suppresses the canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in PDL cells.

Osteoclasts are multinucleated cells with bone resorbing activity and differentiated from hematopoietic cell lineages of monocyte/macrophages in the presence of receptor activator of NF-xB ligand (RANKL) and M-CSF. However, the exact molecular mechanisms through which RANKL stimulates osteoclastogenesis remain to be elucidated. Here we report that activation of cAMP-response elementbinding protein (CREB) is not involved in osteoclastogenesis from osteoclast precursors in response to RANKL. RANKL induced CREB activation in osteoclast precursors. Using pharmacological inhibitors, we found that RANKL-induced CREB activation is dependent on p38 MAPK pathways. We also found that ectopic expressions of wild type and dominant negative forms of CREB in osteoclast precursors did not affect RANKL-induced osteoclast formation and bone resorbing activity. Furthermore, dominant negative forms of CREB did not alter the expression levels of osteoclast-specific marker genes. Taken together, these data suggest that CREB is dispensable for differentiation and resorbing activity of osteoclasts.