Growth Hormone (GH) stimulates growth plate chondrogenesis and longitudinal bone growth, with its stimulatory effects being primarily mediated by Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), both systemically and locally in the growth plate. It has been shown that the transcription factor Stat5b mediates the GHpromoting effect on IGF-1 expression and on chondrogenesis: yet, it is not known whether oth...

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the capacity to proliferate and differentiate into multiple connective tissue lineages, which include cartilage, bone, and fat. Cartilage differentiation and chondrocyte maturation are required for normal skeletal development, but the intracellular pathways regulating this process remain largely unclear. This study was designed to identify novel genes that mig...

AIM The molecular pathways regulating cartilage degradation are unclear. miR-381 was identified as a putative regulator of chondrogenesis related genes. Here, we examined its role in chondrogenesis and osteoarthritic cartilage degeneration. METHODS miR-381 expression was assessed in vitro in response to IL-1β stimulation in primary human (PHC) and mouse (PMC) chondrocytes, and ATDC5 derived c...

As limb mesenchymal cells differentiate into chondrocytes, they initiate the synthesis of type II collagen and cease synthesizing type I collagen. Changes in the cytoplasmic levels of type I and type II collagen mRNAs during the course of limb chondrogenesis in vivo and in vitro were examined using cloned cDNA probes. A striking increase in cytoplasmic type II collagen mRNA occurs coincident wi...

[Purpose] The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of pulsed and continuous ultrasound (US) irradiation on heat shock protein (HSP) 70 and mRNA levels of chondrogenesis-related gene expression in rat tibial articular cartilage. [Subjects and Methods] Forty-eight rats with body weights of 200-250 g were randomly divided into three groups. In the control (CON) group, three rats were...

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INTRODUCTION Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are undifferentiated pluripotential cells capable of differentiating into many cell types, such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, myocytes, and may be a suitable autogenous cell source for articular cartilage repair. In vitro experiments show markers of chondrogenesis, such as aggrecan and collagen type II, are expressed in MSCs cul...

Bone fracture healing is processed through multiple stages including the cartilaginous callus formation and its transition to bony callus. FGFR3 negatively regulates chondrogenesis and enhances osteogenesis during skeleton development. We previously found in mice carrying gain-of-function mutation of FGFR3 that FGFR3 delays the healing of un-stabilized fracture that heals mainly through endocho...

INTRODUCTION The present study compares bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-4 and BMP-2 gene transfer as agents of chondrogenesis and hypertrophy in human primary mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) maintained as pellet cultures. METHODS Adenoviral vectors carrying cDNA encoding human BMP-4 (Ad.BMP-4) were constructed by cre-lox combination and compared to previously generated adenoviral vectors for B...