Activation of the mechanosensitive ion channels TRPV4 and PIEZO1 downregulates key regulatory systems in the chondrocyte mechanome

Background: Chondrocytes, the only native cell type in cartilage, use mechanosensitive ion channels such as Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) and PIEZO1 to transduce mechanical forces into transcriptomic changes that regulate cell behavior under both physiologic and pathologic conditions. Recent work has identified and characterized the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that are upregulated following TRPV4 or PIEZO1 activation, but the transcriptomic systems downregulated by these ion channels also represent an important aspect of the chondrocyte regulatory process that remains poorly studied. Methods: Here, we utilized previously established bulk RNAsequencing libraries to analyze the transcriptomes downregulated by activation of TRPV4 and PIEZO1 through differential gene expression analysis (using DESeq2), Gene Ontology, RT-qPCR, and Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA). Results: TRPV4 and PIEZO1 activations downregulated largely unique sets of DEGs, though the set of DEGs downregulated by TRPV4 exhibited a notable overlap with genes downregulated by treatment with inflammatory mediator Interleukin-1 (IL-1). The DEG set downregulated by PIEZO1 activation included genes associated with the G2/M cell cycle checkpoint, a system that checks cells for DNA damage prior to entry into mitosis, and this result was confirmed with RT-qPCR. WGCNA revealed modules of gene regulation negatively correlated with TRPV4, PIEZO1, and IL-1, outlining how these downregulated DEGs may interact to form gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Conclusion: This study complements previous work in describing the full mechanosensitive transcriptome (or “mechanome”) of differential gene expression in response to activation of mechanosensitive ion channels TRPV4 and PIEZO1 Q2 and suggests potential avenues for future therapeutic treatment design.