{"doi":"10.1016/j.omtm.2021.09.015","title":"SAG therapy restores bone growth and reduces enchondroma incidence in a model of skeletal chondrodysplasias caused by Ihh deficiency","abstract":"Inactivation mutations in the Indian hedgehog (Ihh) gene in humans cause numerous skeletal chondrodysplasias, including acrocapitofemoral dysplasia, brachydactyly type A1, and human short stature. The lack of an appropriate human-relevant model to accurately represent these chondrodysplasias has hampered the identification of clinically effective treatments. Here, we established a mouse model of human skeletal dysplasia induced by Ihh gene mutations via ablation of Ihh in Aggrecan-positive (Acan+) cells using Aggrecan (Acan)-creERT transgenic mice. Smoothen agonist (SAG) promoted Hh activity and rescued chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation by stimulating smoothened trafficking to the cilium in Ihh-silenced cells. SAG treatment corrected mouse stature and significantly decreased mortality without evidence of toxicity. Moreover, Ihh ablation in Acan+ cells produced enchondroma-like tissues near the growth plates that were significantly reduced by SAG treatment. These results demonstrated that SAG effectively treats skeletal dysplasia caused by Ihh gene mutations in a mouse model, suggesting that SAG may represent a potential drug for the treatment of these diseases and/or enchondromas. Inactivation mutations in the Indian hedgehog (Ihh) gene in humans cause numerous skeletal chondrodysplasias, including acrocapitofemoral dysplasia, brachydactyly type A1, and human short stature. The lack of an appropriate human-relevant model to accurately represent these chondrodysplasias has hampered the identification of clinically effective treatments. Here, we established a mouse model of human skeletal dysplasia induced by Ihh gene mutations via ablation of Ihh in Aggrecan-positive (Acan+) cells using Aggrecan (Acan)-creERT transgenic mice. Smoothen agonist (SAG) promoted Hh activity and rescued chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation by stimulating smoothened trafficking to the cilium in Ihh-silenced cells. SAG treatment corrected mouse stature and significantly decreased mortality without evidence of toxicity. Moreover, Ihh ablation in Acan+ cells produced enchondroma-like tissues near the growth plates that were significantly reduced by SAG treatment. These results demonstrated that SAG effectively treats skeletal dysplasia caused by Ihh gene mutations in a mouse model, suggesting that SAG may represent a potential drug for the treatment of these diseases and/or enchondromas.","journal":"Molecular Therapy — Methods & Clinical Development","year":2021,"id":195770,"datarank":0.42180848496128803,"base_score":2.1972245773362196,"endowment":2.1972245773362196,"self_citation_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citation_network_contribution":0.09222479836085505,"self_endowment_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citer_contribution":0.09222479836085505,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":6,"citers_with_citation_signal":4,"citers_with_endowment":4,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9512,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":316223,"name":"Shuting Yang","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":722664,"name":"Zahra Chinipardaz","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432871,"name":"Eiki Koyama","orcid":"0000-0002-5663-6820","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":245401,"name":"Shuying Yang","orcid":"0000-0002-7126-6901","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":482653,"name":"Xinhua Li","orcid":"0000-0002-4387-3229","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":67,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:07.691929Z","pmid":"34820473","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}