Antiproliferative effects of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 in mesenchymal chondrogenic cell line RCJ3.1C5.18. relationship to differentiation stage

Chondrogenesis results from a complex equilibrium between chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation. Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) have a crucial role in chondrogenesis, but their mechanisms of action are not well defined. IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) is the major carrier for circulating IGFs in postnatal life, and has been shown to have IGF-independent effects on proliferation of several cancer cell lines. In this study, we have evaluated the IGF-independent and -dependent effects of IGFBP-3 on chondrocyte proliferation and the relationship of these effects with chondrocyte differentiation stage. We used the RCJ3.1C5.18 nontransformed mesenchymal chondrogenic cell line, which, over 2 weeks of culture, progresses through the differentiation pathway exhibited by chondrocytes in the growth plate. We demonstrated that IGFBP-3 inhibited, in a dose-dependent manner (1-30 nm), the proliferation of chondroprogenitors and early differentiated chondrocytes, stimulated by des-(1-3)-IGF-I and longR(3)-IGF-I (IGF-I analogs with reduced affinity for IGFBP-3), and by insulin and IGF-I. In terminally differentiated chondrocytes, IGFBP-3 retained the ability to inhibit cell proliferation stimulated by IGF-I, but had no effect on cell growth stimulated by insulin, or des-(1-3)-IGF-I or longR(3)IGF-I. By monolayer affinity cross-linking, we demonstrated a specific IGFBP-3-associated cell-membrane protein of approximately 20 kDa. We determined that IGFBP-3 has an antiproliferative effect on chondrocytes and, that this effect is related to the differentiation process. In chondroprogenitors and early differentiated chondrocytes, antiproliferative effect of IGFBP-3 is mainly IGF-independent, whereas, following terminal differentiation this effect is IGF-dependent.