BACKGROUND Phosphocitrate (PC) inhibits osteoarthritis (OA) in Hartley guinea pigs. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVE This study sought to examine the biological effect of PC on OA chondrocytes and test the hypothesis that PC may exert its OA disease modifying effect, in part, by inhibiting the expression of genes implicated in OA disease process...

INTRODUCTION: Osteoarthritis is the predominant form of arthritis, with 21 million Americans suffering from this degenerative condition.[1] Articular cartilage has an inherently poor repair potential, thus clinical intervention is needed. A recent area of interest is the formation of osteochondral grafts[2-4] and the design of interfaces to facilitate integration of bone with cartilage. The ost...

Gli repressor formation via Protein kinase A (PKA) activation. In the current study, we generated a chondrocyte-specific knockout mouse strain of Suppressor of Fused (Sufu) and demonstrated that loss of Sufu leads to elevated expression of Hh target genes, Gli1 and Patched 1 (Ptch1), in the growth plate. Histological analysis illustrated an increase of proliferating cells and a reduction of the...

Cartilage development is initiated by the differentiation of mesenchymal cells into chondrocytes. Differentiated chondrocytes in articular cartilage undergo dedifferentiation and apoptosis during arthritis, in which NO production plays a critical role. Here, we investigated the roles and mechanisms of action of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the chondrogenesis of mesenchymal cells and ...

Objective To evaluate the ability of the eluate from fibrin-rich plasma (FRP) membrane to induce proliferation and differentiation of isolated human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) into chondrocytes. Method FRP membranes were obtained by centrifugation of peripheral blood from two healthy donors, cut, and maintained in culture plate wells for 48 h to prepare the fibrin eluate. The SCATh wer...

BACKGROUND The biological mechanisms by which environmental metals are associated with birth defects are largely unknown. Systems biology-based approaches may help to identify key pathways that mediate metal-induced birth defects as well as potential targets for prevention. OBJECTIVES First, we applied a novel computational approach to identify a prioritized biological pathway that associates...

Gli repressor formation via Protein kinase A (PKA) activation. In the current study, we generated a chondrocyte-specific knockout mouse strain of Suppressor of Fused (Sufu) and demonstrated that loss of Sufu leads to elevated expression of Hh target genes, Gli1 and Patched 1 (Ptch1), in the growth plate. Histological analysis illustrated an increase of proliferating cells and a reduction of the...