Supporting data for Functional Analysis of the Wnt-Irx Regulatory Axis in the Chondrocyte-Osteoblast Lineage and Metabolic Homeostasis

The dataset includes pictures and data files for Mingpeng Kong's PhD thesis. My PhD thesis is a functional analysis of Wnt-Irx regulatory axis on osteoblast-chondrocyte lineage and whole-body metabolism homeostasis. Hypertrophic chondrocytes were recently found to be able to become osteoblasts, but the underlying mechanism is not fully revealed. My work demonstrated that Wnt-Irx regulatory axis can control the fate of hypertrophic chondrocyte descendants to become either osteoblasts or adipocytes. Altered bone-fat balance is associated with whole-body metabolism. Given that Wnt-Irx regulatory axis controls the differentiation towards bone/fat cells, we further examined and characterized the effect of Wnt-Irx regulatory axis by performing a wide range of metabolic tests. In conclusion, the my PhD thesis presents a comprehensive study on the role of Wnt-Irx regulatory axis in chondrocyte lineage and metabolism, which may have long-term implications of the understanding of skeletal and metabolic disorders.