Figure 7.

Wnt7b stimulates glucose metabolism in osteoblast lineage cells. A) Western blot analyses of total cell lysates from bone-chip cells infected with Ad-Cre and then cultured in growth medium for 7 d. Glut1 protein abundance normalized to β-actin and expressed in relative values (means + sd) to level in Glut1^f/+ cells designated 1. B–D) Expression analysis of mRNA by qPCR in bone-chip cells after Ad-Cre infection and 14 d of culture in mineralization medium. Data normalized to β-actin and then expressed as values relative to the level in Glut1^f/+ cells that was designated 1. E, F) Glucose consumption and lactate production by bone-chip cells infected with Ad-Cre and then cultured in growth medium for 7 d. G) Cell number per well in 12-well plates after bone-chip cells were infected with Ad-Cre and then cultured in growth medium for 7 d. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 by 2-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s post hoc test [n = 3 (A); n = 5 (B–G)].