Propeptide’s Normal Role in Healthy Bone IDed for the First Time, Shown to Help Bone Development

Professor Dr. Philip Trackman and his team identified for the first time the normal role of the lysyl oxidase propeptide (LOX-PP) in healthy bone formation.

Oral Biology PhD graduate Dr. Siddharth Vora spent an additional postdoctoral year in Dr. Trackman’s lab and was a major contributor to the research. Dr. Vora will begin a certificate in advanced graduate study in orthodontics this summer in Seattle. The lab of Dr. Matthew Nugent in BU School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry collaborated on part of the research.

The important finding is that LOX-PP naturally interferes with the effects of an important bone growth factor, effectively slowing the growth of pre-osteoblasts, cells that will ultimately make bone.  Because these cells cannot multiply and make bone at the same time, Drs. Trackman and Vora think LOX-PP helps pre-osteoblasts stop growing to allow for further development so that they can make bone.

“Bone formation is a multi-step process and the control of each phase, regulated by growth factors and apparently also by LOX-PP, is critical,” Dr. Trackman says.

Dr. Trackman and colleagues have already made huge breakthroughs studying how LOX-PP prevents tumor growth and growth of tumor cells that can metastasize to bone. Growth factors made by tumor cells and by normal bone cells permit these different cells to “talk” to each other, encouraging tumors to grow in the bone.

“By interfering with this communication, we think LOX-PP can treat or prevent metastasis,” Dr. Trackman says.

The paper, Lysyl Oxidase Propeptide Inhibits FGF-2-induced Signaling and Proliferation of Osteoblasts, appears in the March 5 Journal of Biological Chemistry and is available online here.