Scleral fibroblasts of the chick embryo differentiate into chondrocytes in soft-agar culture

  • Kazuo Watanabe
  • Kumiko Yagi
  • Yoshie Ohya
  • Koji Kimata
Regual Papers
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Summary

Scleral fibroblasts, perichondrial cells of the scleral layer of the 12-day chick embryo, always manifest a fibroblastic morphology in monolayer culture. In soft-agar culture, these cells produce two types of colonies. One type of colony, F-type, consists of adherent fibroblastic cells, and the other, C-type, is composed of scattered round chondrocytic cells. Cells of the C-type colony are surrounded by a halo of extracellular matrix, positive with Alcian blue and with an antibody to cartilage-specific proteoglycan. When a single fibroblast clone in monolayer, derived from a single scleral fibroblast, is subcultured into soft agar, the cells give rise to both C-type and F-type colonies. Further, it was found that cells constituting F-type colonies eventually separate and become spherical, and the F-type colony converts to a C-type colony (C-type conversion). In regard to the C-type convertibility, the primary fibroblast clones were divided into four categories, early time differentiating, middle-time differentiating, late-time differentiating and nondifferentiating. This suggests that the scleral perichondrial layer of the 12-day chick embryo is composed of a variety of cells with different chondrogenic potentialities maintained in each individual cell.

Key words

sclera perichondrium precartilage chondrocyte fibroblast soft-agar culture 
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Copyright information

© Tissue Culture Association 1992

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kazuo Watanabe
    • 1
  • Kumiko Yagi
    • 1
  • Yoshie Ohya
    • 1
  • Koji Kimata
    • 2
  1. 1.Cell and Developmental Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Integrated Arts and SciencesHiroshima UniversityHiroshimaJapan
  2. 2.Institute for Molecular Science of MedicineAichi Medical UniversityAichiJapan

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