The team of Professor Ping Gong from the National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, conducted research on the regulation of bone remodeling by CHD7 and its mechanism, and made major discoveries in the research on the impact of diseases related to bone metabolism abnormalities on oral implants. The research findings were published in Nature Communications in April. Caojie Liu, a Class 2020 doctoral student of WCHS, is the first author of this paper, and Ping Gong and Ning Kang are the co corresponding authors of this paper.

“---The mutation of CHD7 is the main cause of CHARGE syndrome, but its function and mechanism in skeletal system remain unclear. Here, we show conditional knockout of Chd7 in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and preosteoblasts leads to a pathological phenotype manifested as low bone mass and severely high marrow adiposity. Mechanistically, we identify enhancement of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling in Chd7-deficient MSCs. Loss of Chd7 reduces the restriction of PPAR-γ and then PPAR-γ associates with trimethylated histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4me3), which subsequently activates the transcription of downstream adipogenic genes and disrupts the balance between osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation. Our data illustrate the pathological manifestations of Chd7 mutation in MSCs and reveal an epigenetic mechanism in skeletal health and diseases.”(Abstract) The findings provide an important experimental basis for oral implants as well as the treatment of diseases due to bone metabolism abnormalities.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29633-6