The relationship of lacunocanalicular network structure and mechanoresponse has not been well studied. The lacunocanalicular structures differed in the compression and tension sides, in the regions, and in genders in wild-type femoral cortical bone. The overexpression of Sp7 in osteoblasts resulted in thin and porous cortical bone with increased osteoclasts and apoptotic osteocytes, and the number of canaliculi was half of that in the wild-type mice, leading to a markedly impaired lacunocanalicular network. To investigate the response to unloading, we performed tail suspension. Unloading reduced trabecular and cortical bone in the Sp7 transgenic mice due to reduced bone formation. Sost-positive osteocytes increased by unloading on the compression side, but not on the tension side of cortical bone in the wild-type femurs. However, these differential responses were lost in the Sp7 transgenic femurs. Serum Sost increased in the Sp7 transgenic mice, but not in the wild-type mice. Unloading reduced the Col1a1 and Bglap/Bglap2 expression in the Sp7 transgenic mice but not the wild-type mice. Thus, Sp7 transgenic mice with the impaired lacunocanalicular network induced Sost expression by unloading but lost the differential regulation in the compression and tension sides, and the mice failed to restore bone formation during unloading, implicating the relationship of lacunocanalicular network structure and the regulation of bone formation in mechanoresponse.
Keywords: Sost; Sp7; apoptosis; bone formation; bone resorption; canaliculus; lacunocanalicular network; mechanical stress; osteocyte; unloading.