Abstract: Objective: To investigate the expression of Caveolin-1 in mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) during osteoblast differentiation. Methods: The mouse BMSCs were cultured in vitro and divided into osteoblast-induced groups and non-induced group. In the different periods (3, 7, 10 and 14 days), the osteoblast differentiation was identified by alkaline phosphatase (AKP) activity and alizarin red staining and the expression of Caveolin-1 mRNA and protein in BMSCs were detected by real-time RT-PCR and Western blot. Results: RT-PCR results showed that osteoblast-induced groups had a higher expression level of Caveolin-1 than non-induced group at the same periods, and the Caveolin-1 mRNA expression was increased in a time-dependent effect in the osteoblast-induced groups. Western blot results showed that osteoblast-induced groups also had a higher expression level of Caveolin-1 than non-induced group at the same periods. The Caveolin-1 protein expression was increased in a time-dependent effect in osteoblast-induced groups. Conclusion: In this study, the Caveolin-1 expression at both mRNA and protein levels in BMSCs were increased with the osteogenic differentiation. Caveolin-1 may be regulated the BMSCs osteogenic differentiation process.

Key words: Mesenchymal stem cells, Osteogenesis, Caveolin-1