Cartilage turnover in embryonic chick tibial explant cultures. Poult. Sci

ABSTRACT Growth plate cartilage regulates the rate of growth and ultimate length of several bones in the skeleton. Chondrocytes within the growth plate prolifer-ate, differentiate, enlarge, and die. The extracellular ma-trix undergoes synthesis, reorganization, and eventually degradation. The majority of research in growth plate physiology has focused on the proliferation and differen-tiation of chondrocytes as well as proteins they produce for the extracellular matrix. However, little is known about the transition from hypertrophic to apoptotic chon-drocytes or the regulation of terminal degradation of car-tilage prior to bone formation. An explant culture has been developed to study cartilage differentiation using 12-d-old embryonic chick tibiae. We have modified the explant culture and are using it to further elucidate mech