The wonders of BMP9:From mesenchymal stem cell differentiation,angiogenesis,neurogenesis,tumorigenesis,and metabolism to regenerative medicine

Although bone morphogenetic proteins(BMPs)initially showed effective induction of ectopic bone growth in muscle,it has since been determined that these proteins,as members of the TGF-b superfamily,play a diverse and critical array of biological roles.These roles include regulating skeletal and bone formation,angiogenesis,and development and homeostasis of multiple organ systems.Disruptions of the members of the TGF-b/BMP superfamily result in severe skeletal and extra-skeletal irregularities,suggesting high therapeutic potential from understanding this family of BMP proteins.Although it was once one of the least characterized BMPs,BMP9 has revealed itself to have the highest osteogenic potential across numerous experiments both in vitro and in vivo,with recent studies suggesting that the exceptional potency of BMP9 may result from unique signaling pathways that differentiate it from other BMPs.The effectiveness of BMP9 in inducing bone formation was recently revealed in promising experiments that demonstrated efficacy in the repair of critical sized cranial defects as well as compatibility with bone-inducing bio-implants,revealing the great translational promise of BMP9.Furthermore,emerging evidence indicates that,besides its osteogenic activity,BMP9 exerts a broad range of biological functions,including stem cell differentiation,angiogenesis,neurogenesis,tumorigenesis,and metabolism.This review aims to summarize our current understanding of BMP9 across biology and the body.

Notch signaling:Its essential roles in bone and craniofacial development

Notch is a cellecell signaling pathway that is involved in a host of activities including development,oncogenesis,skeletal homeostasis,and much more.More specifically,recent research has demonstrated the importance of Notch signaling in osteogenic differentiation,bone healing,and in the development of the skeleton.The craniofacial skeleton is complex and understanding its development has remained an important focus in biology.In this review we briefly summarize what recent research has revealed about Notch signaling and the current understanding of how the skeleton,skull,and face develop.We then discuss the crucial role that Notch plays in both craniofacial development and the skeletal system,and what importance it may play in the future.

Development of a simplified and inexpensive RNA depletion method for plasmid DNA purification using size selection magnetic beads(SSMBs)

Plasmid DNA(pDNA)isolation from bacterial cells is one of the most common and critical steps in molecular cloning and biomedical research.Almost all pDNA purification in-volves disruption of bacteria,removal of membrane lipids,proteins and genomic DNA,purifi-cation of pDNA from bulk lysate,and concentration of pDNA for downstream applications.While many liquid-phase and solid-phase pDNA purification methods are used,the final pDNA preparations are usually contaminated with varied degrees of host RNA,which cannot be completely digested by RNase A.To develop a simple,cost-effective,and yet effective method for RNA depletion,we investigated whether commercially available size selection magnetic beads(SSMBs),such as Mag-Bind®TotalPure NGS Kit(or Mag-Bind),can completely deplete bacterial RNA in pDNA preparations.In this proof-of-principle study,we demonstrated that,compared with RNase A digestion and two commercial plasmid affinity purification kits,the SSMB method was highly efficient in depleting contaminating RNA from pDNA minipreps.Gene transfection and bacterial colony formation assays revealed that pDNA purified from SSMB method had superior quality and integrity to pDNA samples cleaned up by RNase A digestion and/or commercial plasmid purification kits.We further demonstrated that the SSMB method completely depleted contaminating RNA in large-scale pDNA samples.Furthermore,the Mag-bind-based SSMB method costs only 5-10%of most commercial plasmid purification kits on a per sample basis.Thus,the reported SSMB method can be a valuable and inexpensive tool for the removal of bacterial RNA for routine pDNA preparations.