Probing the microenvironmental conditions for induction of superficial zone protein expression
Summary(#br)Objective(#br)To determine the in vitro conditions which promote expression of superficial zone protein (SZP) .(#br)Methods(#br)Chondrocytes from 6-month-old calves were expanded in monolayer culture and the expression of SZP in alginate bead and monolayer culture was quantified with quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunostaining. The effect of oxygen tension on SZP expression was determined by qRT-PRC analysis of cells cultured in two dimension (2D) and three dimension (3D) under hypoxic (1% pO 2 ) or normoxic (21% pO 2 ) conditions.