Recently, XJTU Professors Liu Jiankang from the School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Li Zongfang from the Second Affiliated Hospital of XJTU, and Shen Liwei from the School of Medicine of Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) jointly made a breakthroughs in the research of the regulatory mechanism of mitochondria inosteoblast differentiation process. Their research discovered that the process of osteoblast differentiation is accompanied with significantly decreased level of the stress response of mitochondria to oxidation and the specific activation of SOD2. In addition, they found SIRT3 plays a vital role in mitochondrial regulation. Meanwhile, the deacetylation of SOD2 it mediated is critical for strengthening the anti-oxidation capability of osteoblasts as well as in sustaining the cellular redox equilibrium and the steadiness of the state of mitochondria. Therefore, this research proves that it is significant to take SIRT3 as the target spot to develop nutrients or drugs that are more safe and effective in the prevention and treatment of bone metabolic disease.

The results of this study were published by the journal Cell Death &Differentiation, with a title of "SIRT3/SOD2 maintains osteoblast differentiation and bone formation by regulating mitochondrial stress". XJTU doctoral candidate Gao Jing and Prof. Feng Zhihui and others co-authored this paper, and Prof. Liu Jiankang and Prof. Shen Weili are the correspondence authors