Objectives: To investigate the mechanism by which basic fibroblast growth factor modulates the mitogenesis of platelet-derived growth factor to human osteoblasts.
Methods: The osteoblasts isolated from human fetal calvaria were incubated with PDGF-AB (100 ng/ml) or bFGF(10 ng/ml) combined with PDGF-AB (100 ng/ml); the growth curve was plotted. The(3)H-TdR incorporation of the osteoblasts was measured after the cells were incubated with different combination of bFGF and PDGF-AA or PDGF-BB. After incubated with bFGF (10 ng/ml) for 24 hours, the number of PDGFR-alpha and PDGFR-beta on the membrane of the osteoblasts was detected by fluoroimmunoassay.
Results: Four days after PDGF-AB added into the medium, the population of the osteoblasts was larger than that of the control (P < 0.05). The number of the osteoblasts incubated with PDGF-AB (12.1 x 10(4)) was 1.8 times as large as the control (6.8 x 10(4)) in the 10th day (P < 0.05), and that of the osteoblasts incubated with both bFGF and PDGF-AB increased more quickly than the cells only incubated with PDGF-AB. The incorporation of (3)H-TdR into the osteoblasts cultured with bFGF combined with PDGF-AA (533.6 +/- 13.1) was more than that cultured only with PDGF-AA (435.4 +/- 14.8, P < 0.01), so was the incorporation of (3)H-TdR of those cells cultured with bFGF and then PDGF-AA (633.8 +/- 51.5). bFGF up-regulated PDGFR-alpha and down-regulated PDGFR-beta on the surface of the human osteoblasts.
Conclusion: bFGF elevates the mitogenesis of PDGF-AA or -AB to human osteoblasts by up-regulating PDGFR-alpha.