Chondrocyte cultures from XXXX proximal interphalangeal finger joints.

@entity1 @entity571 @entity572 @entity158 @entity528
UNASSIGNED: @entity571 ( @entity571 ) of the hand is a common disease resulting in @entity158 and impaired function. The pathogenesis of @entity571 ( @entity571 ) is elusive and models to study it have not been described. Chondrocyte culture has been essential to understand @entity528 , which is a hallmark of @entity571 . We investigated the feasibility of @entity1 chondrocyte culture derived from proximal interphalangeal (PIP) finger joints. Hyaline cartilage of the PIP and knee joints was obtained from @entity1 cadavers. Chondrocytes harvested up to 236 hours after death of the donors were viable and expressed chondrocyte-specific genes. Gene expression comparing chondrocytes from PIP and knee joints using Affymetrix GeneChip arrays resulted in a unique PIP-specific gene expression pattern. Genes involved in developmental processes including the WNT pathway were differentially expressed between the joints. These findings suggest that our knowledge on chondrocyte biology derived mainly from knee and @entity572 may not apply to chondrocytes of the PIP joints and some of the distinctive features of @entity571 may be caused by the specific properties of PIP chondrocytes. Chondrocyte culture of PIP cartilage is a novel tool to study @entity528 in @entity571 . This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
