Analysis of mechanisms underlying the differentiation of articular cartilage

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24390348
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Orthopaedic surgery
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: ONO Takashi 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 届出診療医 (00506248)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OSHIMA Yasushi 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 講師 (50570016) ; INUI Hiroshi 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 助教 (60583119)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 関節軟骨 / 変形性関節症 / FGF18

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We identified many genes with higher expression in articular cartilage than in growth plate cartilage. Among them, Fgf18 was found to protect articular cartilage through the upregulation of Timp1, which has an inhibitory effect on matrix degrading enzymes.
In addition, we established a series of experimental methods of sampling a minute region of articular cartilage from cryosections using laser microdissection (LMD), and then analyzing the gene expression profiles with a next generation sequencer. Using these means, we examined differences in the profiles among several layers which comprise articular cartilage.

Free Research Field

整形外科学