F-SPONDIN: A NEW REGULATOR OF CARTILAGE MATURATION IN DEVELOPMENT AND OSTEOARTHRITIS

摘要

Cartilage health and function requires a delicate interplay between proteins produced by chondrocytes and signaling to these chondrocytes from the extracellular matrix. Alterations in these interactions result in osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease of permanent cartilage, and chondrodysplasias or dwarfism, diseases of transient cartilage of the long bones. One such molecule, F-spondin, a heparin-binding extracellular matrix glycoprotein, is highly expressed in growth plate and osteoarthritic cartilage. We report here that F-spondin alters endochondral bone formation in cultured embryonic tibiae by inhibiting growth, as measured by length and simultaneously increasing maturation as measured by mineralization. These results support the role of F-spondin in endochondral bone formation.