Exendin‑4 promotes osteogenic differentiation of adipose‑derived stem cells and facilitates bone repair

Inflammationrelated bone defects pose a heavy burden on patients and orthopedic surgeons. Although stemcellbased bone repair has developed rapidly, it is of great significance to characterize bioactive molecules that facilitate bone regeneration. It is reported that a glucagonlike peptide 1 receptor agonist, exendin4, promoted bone regeneration mediated by the transplantation of adiposederived stem cells in a metaphyseal defect mouse model of femur injury. However, the underlying mechanism is unclear. Bone imaging, immunohistochemistry realtime PCR and western blot analysis were used in the present study, and the results revealed that exendin4 increased the transcription of the osteogenic differentiationrelated genes and induced osteogenic differentiation in situ. Furthermore, the present data obtained from sorted adiposederived stem cells revealed that exendin4 promoted osteogenic differentiation and inhibited adipogenic differentiation in vitro. These findings indicated that exendin4 facilitates osteogenic differentiation of transplanted adiposederived stem cells for bone repair and illuminated clinical prospects of both adiposederived stem cells and exendin4 in stemcellbased bone defect repair.