SCIMP: A Novel Targeted Gene for Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Progression

Objective The literature suggests that not all postmenopausal women suffer from osteoporosis, and the occurrence of postmenopausal osteoporosis is closely related to the genetic susceptibility of genes in the population and the cellular pathways of related genes. To systematically understand the functions of SCIMP gene for osteoporosis, both in vitro and in vivo experiments were analyzed in depth in this integrated study. Methods The significantly differentially expressed genes of postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) patients from GEO database were selected. Meanwhile, the primary target gene was also confirmed in clinically recruited individuals using ELISA method; 50 postmenopausal osteoporosis patients with a T‐score of ‐2.5 were randomly enrolled; postmenopausal women with a T‐score > −2.5 were included in the non‐osteoporotic group (including osteopenia and normal bone mineral density). The associated processes and signaling pathways were deeply investigated with GO and KEGG enrichment analysis. The downstream signaling factors including Erk‐1/2, Akt, and IkB‐related signaling pathways for the potential gene were evaluated using MG‐63 cell line; the MTT, CCK‐8, and flow cytometry assays were performed to exam MG‐63 cell viability, proliferation, as well as apoptosis, respectively, under different treatments. Results Based on the differentially expressed gene analysis for GEO database, PMOP patients displayed 845 differentially expressed genes, including 709 down‐regulated and 136 up‐regulated ones. Ten genes including SCIMP were significantly differentially expressed (at least three‐fold difference). SCIMP was the most markedly decreased in PMOP patients’ specimens. Using clinical recruited individuals, the concentration of SCIMP was 96.6 ± 20.8 ng/μL in the PMOP group compared with 168.8 ± 23.5 ng/μL in the control group (p