Age-related changes in biological characterization of human articular chondroyctes

초록

Articular cartilage is one of the tissues with the highest frequency of age-related pathology. Osteoarthritis (OA) not only represents the most frequent musculoskeletal disorders but also the most common disease in the aged population. Therefore, the senescent articular chondrocyte seems to be a good model to wxamine the responses to aging in OA. The object of study was to investigate age-related changes in human articular chondorycte. The results were as follows. 1) Proliferative capacity of chondrocytes from young ages showed 4.2 days doubling time while that from old age showed 13.4 days. 2) The young chondrocyte expressed PCNA up to 10 passages, but the expression of PCNA declined after the passage 2 of old one. p21 expression was increased after the 3rd passage of the old chondrocyte. 3) Genomic DNA from either young chondroyctes or old chondroyctes did not show any fragmentation. 4) Collagen type II was expressed in the young chondroycte during first five passages, whereas its expression in old chondoryctes was declined after the second passage of the old chondrocyte.