Abstract
WHEN chondrocytes from sternal or articular cartilage are kept in monolayer culture at low density, they eventually lose their cartilage phenotype1–4. Within four passages or approximately 1 month in culture they change from a polygonal or round to a flattened, amoeboid-like shape5–7, and instead of cartilage collagen (type II collagen8) they synthesise the genetically different type I collagen. It is not known whether there is a strict correlation between the occurrence of cell flattening and the change in collagen synthesis within individual cells. We have reported that preferentially flattened, fibroblast-like cells at the edge of cartilage colonies synthesise type I collagen, whereas round or polygonal chondrocytes generally synthesise type II collagen1–3. The change is nearly complete in a culture at a time when excessive flattening is observed4. Using an immunofluorescence double staining technique9,10, we have now found that there is no strict correlation between cell morphology and type of collagen synthesised.
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References
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VON DER MARK, K., GAUSS, V., VON DER MARK, H. et al. Relationship between cell shape and type of collagen synthesised as chondrocytes lose their cartilage phenotype in culture. Nature 267, 531–532 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/267531a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/267531a0
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