Abstract
BackgroundFull-thickness articular cartilage lesions that reach to the subchondral bone yet are restricted to the chondral compartment usually fill with a fibrocartilage-like repair tissue which is structurally and biomechanically compromised relative to normal articular cartilage. The objective of this study was to evaluate transcriptional differences between chondrocytes of normal articular cartilage and repair tissue cells four months post-microfracture.MethodsBilateral one-cm2 full-thickness defects were made in the articular surface of both distal femurs of four adult horses followed by subchondral microfracture. Four months postoperatively, repair tissue from the lesion site and grossly normal articular cartilage from within the same femorotibial joint were collected. Total RNA was isolated from the tissue samples, linearly amplified, and applied to a 9,413-probe set equine-specific cDNA microarray. Eight paired comparisons matched by limb and horse were made with a dye-swap experimental design with validation by histological analyses and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).ResultsStatistical analyses revealed 3,327 (35.3%) differentially expressed probe sets. Expression of biomarkers typically associated with normal articular cartilage and fibrocartilage repair tissue corroborate earlier studies. Other changes in gene expression previously unassociated with cartilage repair were also revealed and validated by RT-qPCR.ConclusionThe magnitude of divergence in transcriptional profiles between normal chondrocytes and the cells that populate repair tissue reveal substantial functional differences between these two cell populations. At the four-month postoperative time point, the relative deficiency within repair tissue of gene transcripts which typically define articular cartilage indicate that while cells occupying the lesion might be of mesenchymal origin, they have not recapitulated differentiation to the chondrogenic phenotype of normal articular chondrocytes.
Highlights
Full-thickness articular cartilage lesions that reach to the subchondral bone yet are restricted to the chondral compartment usually fill with a fibrocartilage-like repair tissue which is structurally and biomechanically compromised relative to normal articular cartilage
Repair tissue generally had homogeneous matrix architecture with elongated, flattened cells (Figure 1G) that interfaced with surrounding articular cartilage (Figure 1H)
Safranin-O staining demonstrated that the repair tissue was generally proteoglycan-deficient relative to the adjacent normal articular cartilage surrounding the lesions (Figure 1C), but there was variation with some repair tissue samples showing evidence of proteoglycan content (Figure 1F)
Summary
Full-thickness articular cartilage lesions that reach to the subchondral bone yet are restricted to the chondral compartment usually fill with a fibrocartilage-like repair tissue which is structurally and biomechanically compromised relative to normal articular cartilage. The objective of this study was to evaluate transcriptional differences between chondrocytes of normal articular cartilage and repair tissue cells four months post-microfracture. Full-thickness articular cartilage defects that penetrate into the subchondral bone undergo a repair process characterized by the in-growth of fibrous tissue within the lesion [1,2]. Type I fibrillar collagen predominates the extracellular matrix in repair tissue of most full-thickness defects without graft or transplant [4,7]. Morphological differences exist between the cells in repair tissue and the chondrocytes of skeletally mature articular cartilage [3]. Repair tissue is often called fibrocartilage or hyaline-like repair cartilage, though it does not necessarily contain an actual chondrocyte cell population
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