Osteoarthritis (OA) represents a final and common pathway for all major traumatic insults to synovial joints. OA is the most common form of degenerative joint disease and a major cause of pain and disability. Despite the global increase in the incidence of OA, there are no effective pharmacotherapies capable of restoring the original structure and function of damaged articular cartilage. Conseq...

Articular chondrocytes are responsible for the maintenance of healthy articulations; indeed, dysregulation of their functions, including the production of matrix proteins and matrix-remodeling proteases, may result in fraying of the tissue and development of osteoarthritis (OA). To explore transcriptional mechanisms that contribute to the regulation of chondrocyte homeostasis and may be implica...

Temporomandibular joint internal derangement (TMJ ID) is characterised by disc displacement and degenerative tissue changes involving an active cellular response, with cell phenotype transformation from fibroblast-like to fibrochondrocyte and, eventually, to chondrocyte-like, possibly as a response to abnormal loading. However, only small patches of chondral tissue are detected in TMJ discs wit...

OBJECTIVE To investigate cell biological changes in calcified aortas of rats that experienced chronic renal failure. METHODS AND RESULTS Vascular smooth muscle cells have the potential to transdifferentiate to either chondrocytes or osteoblasts, depending on the molecular pathways that are stimulated. Uremia-related medial calcification was induced by feeding rats an adenine low-protein diet ...

Expansion of autologous chondrocytes in vitro is used to generate adequate populations for cell-based therapies. However, standard (SD) culture methods cause loss of chondrocyte phenotype and dedifferentiation to fibroblast-like cells. Here, we use a novel surface expansion culture system in an effort to inhibit chondrocyte dedifferentiation. A highly elastic silicone rubber culture surface was...

Although low-dose radiation (LDR) regulates a wide range of biological processes, limited information is available on the effects of LDR on the chondrocyte phenotype. Here, we found that LDR, at doses of 0.5-2 centiGray (cGy), inhibited interleukin (IL)-1β-induced chondrocyte destruction without causing side effects, such as cell death and senescence. IL-1β treatment induced an increase in the ...

introduction: sox9 is a transcriptional activator which is necessary for chondrogenesis. sox6 are closely related to dna-binding proteins that critically enhance its function. therefore, to carry out the growth plate chondrocyte differentiation program, sox9 and sox6 collaborate genomewide. chondrocyte differentiation is also known to be promoted by glucocorticoids through unknown molecular mec...

During skeletal morphogenesis diverse mechanisms are used to support bone formation. This can be seen in the bones that require a cartilage template for their development. In mammals the cartilage template is removed, but in zebrafish the cartilage template persists and the bone mineralizes around the cartilage scaffold. Remodeling of unmineralized cartilage occurs via planar cell polarity (PCP...