Lead by Professor Tim Hardingham

Chondrocytes are responsible for the production of cartilage ECM, but lose the ability to make ECM in cell culture. In a new programme of work we plan to investigate the expression of SOX genes in human chondrocytes during the loss of phenotype in cell culture and we will establish if the expression of transfected SOX genes causes the recovery of phenotype. The signals from ECM that act on chondrocytes in cartilage matrix and maintain phenotype will be identified Differences in gene expression between chondrocytes in cartilage and passaged chondrocytes transfected with the SOX genes will establish if other regulatory genes are involved. The synthesis and assembly of cartilage matrix by chondrocytes in culture will be assessed by composition analysis, confocal microscopy, and by confocal-FRAP analysis to monitor matrix network formation. This will identify the key interactions in the initial assembly of ECM by chondrocytes and will lead to new strategies for generating cartilage matrix in culture for tissue engineering.

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