AccScience Publishing / OR / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/OR026280028
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Jawbone periosteal cell spheroids exhibit early osteogenic responses through F-actin/NF-κB–mediated mechanotransduction

Ying Liu1† Conghui Zhang1† Jingxian Zhu1,2 Haibin Xia1,3 Wei Ji1,3*
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1 State Key Laboratory of Oral & Maxillofacial Reconstruction and Regeneration, Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Stomatology, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei , China
2 Department of Geriatric Dentistry, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei , China
3 Department of Implantology, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei , China
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
Received: 10 July 2026 | Revised: 12 August 2026 | Accepted: 19 August 2026 | Published online: 4 September 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) spheroids have emerged as a powerful approach for studying ossification and bone regeneration. However, it remains unclear whether a 3D self-assembly process can initiate early osteogenic responses under physiologically relevant, induction-free conditions. In this study, we established a scaffold-free, self-assembling spheroid model using mouse jawbone periosteum-derived cells (jb-PDCs) without exogenous osteogenic inducers. Compared with monolayer cultures, spheroid formation induced the sequential upregulation of osteogenic markers, including Col1a2 at 12 h, Sp7 at 24 h, Spp1 at 48 h, and Runx2 after seven days. Transcriptomic profiling revealed significant enrichment of nuclear factor κ-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) signaling. Increased phosphorylation of the p65 subunit further confirmed NF-κB pathway activation. Pharmacological inhibition of NF-κB abolished the spheroid-associated upregulation of Col1a2, Sp7, and Spp1, whereas direct NF-κB activation in conventional monolayer cultures recapitulated this osteogenic gene expression program. Furthermore, spheroid formation was accompanied by marked F-actin disassembly. Pharmacological stabilization of actin filaments reduced both p65 phosphorylation and osteogenic gene expression. Together, these findings identify an F-actin/NF-κB mechanotransduction axis through which 3D self-assembly promotes early osteogenic gene expression in jb-PDCs. Our results suggest that cellular aggregation can intrinsically couple cytoskeletal remodeling to initiate early osteogenic responses. The inducer-free jb-PDC spheroid system also provides a useful platform for investigating the mechanobiology of early osteogenic responses and may inform the development of biomimetic strategies for craniofacial bone regeneration.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Periosteal progenitor cells
Spheroids
Osteogenic Differentiation
Nuclear factor κ-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells signaling
Filamentous actin
Mechanotransduction
Funding
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.82170931) and the Medical Elite Program of Hubei Province (grant number: 2023-065).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Organoid Research, Electronic ISSN: 3082-8503 Published by AccScience Publishing