Coronal suture

Abstract: Craniofrontonasal syndrome (CFNS) is an X-linked developmental disorder that shows paradoxically greater severity in heterozygous females than in hemizygous males. Females have frontonasal dysplasia and coronal craniosynostosis (fusion of the coronal sutures); in males, hypertelorism is the only typical manifestation. Here, we show that the classical female CFNS phenotype is caused by heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in EFNB1, which encodes a member of the ephrin family of transmembrane ligands for Eph receptor tyrosine kinases. In mice, the orthologous Efnb1 gene is expressed in the frontonasal neural crest and demarcates the position of the future coronal suture. Although EFNB1 is X-inactivated, we did not observe markedly skewed X-inactivation in either blood or cranial periosteum from females with CFNS, indicating that lack of ephrin-B1 does not compromise cell viability in these tissues. We propose that in heterozygous females, patchwork loss of ephrin-B1 disturbs tissue boundary formation at the developing coronal suture, whereas in males deficient in ephrin-B1, an alternative mechanism maintains the normal boundary. This is the only known mutation in the ephrin/Eph receptor signaling system in humans and provides clues to the biogenesis of craniosynostosis.

Abstract: Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) play major roles in skeletogenesis, and activating mutations of the human FGFR1, FGFR2 and FGFR3 genes cause premature fusion of the skull bones (craniosynostosis). We have investigated the patterns of expression of Fgfr1, Fgfr2 and Fgfr3 in the fetal mouse head, with specific reference to their relationship to cell proliferation and differentiation in the frontal and parietal bones and in the coronal suture. Fgfr2 is expressed only in proliferating osteoprogenitor cells; the onset of differentiation is preceded by down-regulation of Fgfr2 and up-regulation of Fgfr1. Following up-regulation of the differentiation marker osteopontin, Fgfr1, osteonectin and alkaline phosphatase are down-regulated, suggesting that they are involved in the osteogenic differentiation process but not in maintaining the differentiated state. Fgfr3 is expressed in the cranial cartilage, including a plate of cartilage underlying the coronal suture, as well as in osteogenic cells, suggesting a dual role in skull development. Subcutaneous insertion of FGF2-soaked beads onto the coronal suture on E15 resulted in up-regulation of osteopontin and Fgfr1 in the sutural mesenchyme, down-regulation of Fgfr2, and inhibition of cell proliferation. This pattern was observed at 6 and 24 hours after bead insertion, corresponding to the timing and duration of FGF2 diffusion from the beads. We suggest (a) that a gradient of FGF ligand, from high levels in the differentiated region to low levels in the environment of the osteogenic stem cells, modulates differential expression of Fgfr1 and Fgfr2, and (b) that signalling through FGFR2 regulates stem cell proliferation whereas signalling through FGFR1 regulates osteogenic differentiation.

Abstract: Fibroblast growth factor receptor type 2 (FGFR2) plays major roles in development. Like FGFR1 and FGFR3, it exists as two splice variants, IIIb and IIIc. We have investigated in the mouse the function of FGFR2IIIc, the mesenchymal splice variant of FGFR2. Fgfr2IIIc is expressed in early mesenchymal condensates and in the periosteal collar around the cartilage models; later it is expressed in sites of both endochondral and intramembranous ossification. A translational stop codon inserted into exon 9 disrupted the synthesis of Fgfr2IIIc without influencing the localized transcription of Fgfr2IIIb, the epithelial Fgfr2 variant. The recessive phenotype of Fgfr2IIIc(-/-) mice was characterized initially by delayed onset of ossification, with continuing deficiency of ossification in the sphenoid region of the skull base. During subsequent stages of skeletogenesis, the balance between proliferation and differentiation was shifted towards differentiation, leading to premature loss of growth, synostosis in certain sutures of the skull base and in the coronal suture of the skull vault, with dwarfism in the long bones and axial skeleton. The retarded ossification was correlated with decrease in the localized transcription of the osteoblast markers secreted phosphoprotein 1 (Spp1) and Runx2/Cbfa1. A decrease in the domain of transcription of the chondrocyte markers Ihh and PTHrP (Pthlh) corresponded with a decrease in their transcripts in the proliferative and hypertrophic chondrocyte zones. These results suggest that Fgfr2IIIc is a positive regulator of ossification affecting mainly the osteoblast, but also the chondrocyte, lineages. This role contrasts with the negative role of Fgfr3, although recent reports implicate FGF18, a ligand for FGFR3IIIc and FGFR2IIIc, as a co-ordinator of osteogenesis via these two receptors.