Background: Cell-based treatment approach using differentiated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and mature chondrocytes has been considered as an advanced treatment for cartilage repair. We investigated the differentiated level of these two cell types that is crucial for their repair capacity for cartilage defect at a co-culture micro mass system. Methods: Passaged-2 MSCs isolated from the mouse b...

Despite its widespread existence, there are relatively few drugs that can inhibit the progression of osteoarthritis (OA). Syndecan-4 (SDC4) is a transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan modulates cellular interactions with extracellular matrix. Upregulated SDC4 expression in articular cartilage chondrocytes correlates OA progression. In present study, we treated osteoarthritic to elucidate ro...

Articular cartilage, the load-bearing tissue of the joint, has limited repair and regeneration ability. The scarcity of treatment modalities for large chondral defects has motivated researchers to engineer cartilage tissue constructs that can meet the functional demands of this tissue in vivo. Cartilage tissue engineering requires 3 components: cells, scaffold, and environment. ...

We investigated whether prunetin affects the proteolytic activity, secretion, and gene expression of matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) in primary cultured rabbit articular chondrocytes, as well as in vivo production of MMP-3 in the rat knee joint to evaluate the potential chondroprotective eff ect of prunetin. Rabbit articular chondrocytes were cultured in a monolayer, and reverse transcriptio...

BACKGROUND Articular cartilage has little capacity for repair in vivo, however, a small number of studies have shown that, in vitro, a damage/repair response can be induced. Recent work by our group has shown that cartilage can respond to single impact load and culture by producing repair cells on the articular surface. The purpose of this study was to identify whether chondrocyte outgrowth int...

PTHrP (parathyroid hormone-related protein) is crucial for normal cartilage development and long bone growth and acts to delay chondrocyte hypertrophy and terminal differentiation in the growth plate. After growth plate closure adult HACs (human articular chondrocytes) still produce PTHrP, suggesting a possible role for this factor in the permanent articular cartilage. However, the expression r...

BACKGROUND In osteoarthritis (OA), the imbalance of chondrocytes' anabolic and catabolic factors can induce cartilage destruction. Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokine that is capable of inducing chondrocytes and synovial cells to synthesize MMPs. The hypoxia-inducible factor-2alpha (HIF-2alpha, encoded by Epas1) is the catabolic transcription factor in the osteoarth...

OBJECTIVE(S) Osteoarthritis is one of the most common diseases in middle-aged population in the world. Cartilage tissue engineering (TE) has been presented as an effort to introduce the best combination of cells, biomaterial scaffolds and stimulating growth factors to produce a cartilage tissue similar to the natural articular cartilage. In this study, the chondrogenic potential of adipose deri...