Developmental Cell
Volume 20, Issue 5, 17 May 2011, Pages 713-724
Journal home page for Developmental Cell

Article
Bone Regenerates via Dedifferentiation of Osteoblasts in the Zebrafish Fin

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2011.04.014Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Summary

While mammals have a limited capacity to repair bone defects, zebrafish can completely regenerate amputated bony structures of their fins. Fin regeneration is dependent on formation of a blastema, a progenitor cell pool accumulating at the amputation plane. It is unclear which cells the blastema is derived from, whether it forms by dedifferentiation of mature cells, and whether blastema cells are multipotent. We show that mature osteoblasts dedifferentiate and form part of the blastema. Osteoblasts downregulate expression of intermediate and late bone differentiation markers and induce genes expressed by bone progenitors. Dedifferentiated osteoblasts proliferate in a FGF-dependent manner and migrate to form part of the blastema. Genetic fate mapping shows that osteoblasts only give rise to osteoblasts in the regenerate, indicating that dedifferentiation is not associated with the attainment of multipotency. Thus, bone can regenerate from mature osteoblasts via dedifferentiation, a finding with potential implications for human bone repair.

Highlights

► Mature osteoblasts dedifferentiate in response to fin amputation ► Dedifferentiated osteoblasts proliferate and migrate to form part of the blastema ► Osteoblasts remain lineage restricted throughout regeneration

Cited by (0)

4

Present address: Departments of Biochemistry/Physiology and Pharmacology, Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Walk, Clifton BS8 1TD, UK