Extracellular adenosine 5'-diphosphate promotes MCP-1/CCL2 expression via the P2Y purinergic receptor/ERK signaling axis in temporomandibular joint-derived mouse fibroblast-like synoviocytes.

Background: Temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) causes cartilage degeneration, bone cavitation, and fibrosis of the TMJ. However, the mechanisms underlying the fibroblast-like synoviocyte (FLS)-mediated inflammatory activity in TMJ-OA remain unclear.

Methods And Results: Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that the P2Y, P2Y, and P2Y purinergic receptor agonist adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP) significantly induces monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1)/ C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) expression in the FLS1 synovial cell line. In contrast, the uracil nucleotide UTP, which is a P2Y and P2Y agonist, has no significant effect on MCP-1/CCL2 production in FLS1 cells. In addition, the P2Y antagonist MRS 2211 considerably decreases the expression of ADP-induced MCP-1/CCL2, whereas ADP stimulation enhances extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation. Moreover, it was found that the mitogen-activated protein kinase/ERK kinase (MEK) inhibitor U0126 reduces ADP-induced MCP-1/CCL2 expression.

Conclusion: ADP enhances MCP-1/CCL2 expression in TMJ FLSs via P2Y receptors in an MEK/ERK-dependent manner, thus resulting in inflammatory cell infiltration in the TMJ. Collectively, the findings of this study contribute to a partial clarification of the signaling pathway underlying the development of inflammation in TMJ-OA and can help identify potential therapeutic targets for suppressing ADP-mediated purinergic signaling in this disease.