Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: A complex osteoporotic milieu is associated with arterial stiffening and PDGF-BB-mediated calcification of human smooth muscle cells
doi: 10.1101/2025.10.25.684499
Figure Lengend Snippet: Flow cytometry analysis of (A) total granulocytes, (B) basophils, (C) eosinophils, (D) neutrophils, and platelets in the peripheral blood of non-osteoporotic frail controls (CON-F; n=16), osteopenic frail individuals (OPE; n=16), and osteoporotic frail individuals (OPO; n=28 out of 38). Differences in immune cell subsets were assessed using a Brown-Forsythe and Welch ANOVA with Dunnett’s T3 multiple comparisons test vs. CON-F if data were normally distributed. Non-normal data were analyzed with a Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn’s multiple comparison. § indicates incomplete immune cell subset data. (E) Sera screening of non-osteoporotic middle-aged controls (CON-M), non-osteoporotic healthy older controls (CON-H), CON-F, OPE, and OPO individuals using bead-based multiplex assays. Clustered expression levels are given as median Z-scores. Factors with significantly different expression levels or distinct trends with p<0.1 in OPE or OPO individuals vs. CON-M, CON-H, and CON-F include (G) sCD40L, (H) PDGF-BB, (I) OPN, and (J) SDF-1. Differences between serum factors were assessed using two-way ANOVAs with Dunnett’s post-test (p<0.05) vs. CON-H, CON-M, or CON-F. Only significant differences (p<0.05) and distinct trends with p<0.1 are shown. (K) Spearman correlation of the significantly different cellular and serum factors in non-osteoporotic controls (CON: CON-M, CON-H, CON-F) and (L) in osteopenic and osteoporotic individuals (low BMD: OPE, OPO). (M) Differences between correlation coefficients of CON and low BMD were assessed using Fisher’s Z-test; * p<0.05, ** p<0.001, *** p<0.0001.
Article Snippet: The role of PDGF-BB was further assessed using osteogenic medium containing sex-mixed participant-derived sera pools supplemented with either 25 μg/ml neutralizing polyclonal human PDGF antibody (αPDGF; Cat# AB-20, RRID:AB_354273; R&D Systems ® ) dissolved in PBS, or 50 μM chebulinic acid (CheA; Cat# SMB00271, Sigma-Aldrich or Cat# A16208, AdooQ ® BioScience, USA), dissolved in ddH 2 O and briefly heated up to 70 °C to prepare a 1 mM stock.
Techniques: Flow Cytometry, Comparison, Multiplex Assay, Expressing