Chondrocyte survival is a major goal for the effective storage and clinical performance of human osteochondral allografts. The majority of animal and human cryopreservation studies conducted so far have been performed in small osteochondral cylinders. Using human tibial plateaus as a model for large osteochondral pieces, this work sought to evaluate the cryoprotective efficiency of glycerol and...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder characterised by bone remodelling and cartilage degradation and associated with chondrocyte apoptosis. These processes were investigated at 10, 16, 24, and 30 weeks in Dunkin Hartley (DH) and Bristol Strain 2 (BS2) guinea pigs that develop OA spontaneously. Both strains had a more pronounced chondrocyte apoptosis, cartilage degradation, and ...

Tissue engineering encapsulated cells such as chondrocytes in the carrier matrix have been widely used to repair cartilage defects. However, chondrocyte phenotype is easily lost when chondrocytes are expanded in vitro by a process defined as "dedifferentiation". To ensure successful therapy, an effective pro-chondrogenic agent is necessary to overcome the obstacle of limited cell numbers in the...

Lacking a blood supply and having a low cellular density, articular cartilage has a minimal ability for self-repair. Therefore, wide-ranging cartilage damage rarely resolves spontaneously. Cartilage damage is typically treated by chondrocyte transplantation, mosaicplasty or microfracture. Recent advances in tissue engineering have prompted research on techniques to repair articular cartilage da...

Cartilage is a supportive structure able to transmit and distribute loads within the body, as a result of its composition of chondrocytes and extracellular matrix (ECM). Damage to cartilage associated with osteoarthritis and injury is difficult to repair because of the tissue’s avascular nature. Growth and maintenance of cartilage tissue in vivo result from the synergistic effects of biochemica...

The aims of this study were (i) to quantify chondrocyte mechanics in fully intact articular cartilage attached to its native bone and (ii) to compare the chondrocyte mechanics for cells in healthy and early osteoarthritis (OA) tissue. We hypothesized that cells in the healthy tissue would deform less for given articular surface pressures than cells in the early OA tissue because of a loss of ma...

Chondrocyte apoptosis triggered by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). Bushen Zhuangjin decoction (BZD) has been widely used in the treatment of OA. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the inhibitory effects of BZD on chondrocyte apoptosis remain to be elucidated. In the present study, we investigated the ef...

Title: GIT1 gene deletion delays chondrocyte differentiation and healing of tibial plateau fracture through suppressing proliferation and apoptosis of chondrocyte Authors: Peng Chen ([email protected]) Wan-Li Gu ([email protected]) Ming-Zhi Gong ([email protected]) Jun Wang ([email protected]) Dong-Qing Li ([email protected]) Version: 1 Date: 09 May 2017 Author’s response to reviews: Dear Editor...

Elucidating the signalling pathways that regulate chondrocyte differentiation, such as the actin cytoskeleton and Rho GTPases, during development is essential for understanding of pathological conditions of cartilage, such as chondrodysplasias and osteoarthritis. Manipulation of actin dynamics in tibia organ cultures isolated from E15.5 mice results in pronounced enhancement of endochondral bon...

INTRODUCTION The aim of the study was to discover the mechanism of rejection of chondrocyte transplants introduced into articular cartilage defects. MATERIAL/METHODS Chondrocytes from 3 -5-day-old Lewis or WAG rats were liberated by enzymatic digestion from articular-epiphyseal cartilage complexes and implanted into defects made in the subpatellar region of the femur condyle of naive Lewis ra...