Cartilage and Osteoarthritis

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Culture and Phenotyping of Chondrocytes in Primary Culture

   • Sylvie Thirion, Francis Berenbaum

   Pages 1-14

3. Culture of Chondrocytes in Alginate Beads

   • Frédéric De Ceuninck, Christophe Lesur, Philippe Pastoureau, Audrey Caliez, Massimo Sabatini

   Pages 15-22

4. Immortalization of Human Articular Chondrocytes for Generation of Stable, Differentiated Cell Lines

   • Mary B. Goldring

   Pages 23-35

5. Culture of Immortalized Chondrocytes and Their Use As Models of Chondrocyte Function

   • Mary B. Goldring

   Pages 37-52

6. Generation of Pluripotent Stem Cells and Their Differentiation to the Chondrocytic Phenotype

   • Luis A. Solchaga, Jean F. Welter, Donald P. Lennon, Arnold I. Caplan

   Pages 53-67

7. Semiquantitative Analysis of Gene Expression in Cultured Chondrocytes by RT-PCR

   • Gaëlle Rolland-Valognes

   Pages 69-78

8. Quantification of mRNA Expression Levels in Articular Chondrocytes With PCR Technologies

   • Audrey McAlinden, Jochen Haag, Brigitte Bau, Pia M. Gebhard, Thomas Aigner

   Pages 79-100

9. RNA Extraction From Cartilage

   • Frédéric Mallein-Gerin, Jérôme Gouttenoire

   Pages 101-104

10. Gene Expression Analysis in Cartilage by In Situ Hybridization

    • Frédéric Mallein-Gerin, Jérôme Gouttenoire

    Pages 105-108

11. Analysis of Differential Gene Expression in Healthy and Osteoarthritic Cartilage and Isolated Chondrocytes by Microarray Analysis

    • Thomas Aigner, Joachim Saas, Alexander Zien, Ralf Zimmer, Pia M. Gebhard, Thomas Knorr

    Pages 109-127

12. High-Efficiency Nonviral Transfection of Primary Chondrocytes

    • Jean F. Welter, Luis A. Solchaga, Matthew C. Stewart

    Pages 129-145

13. In Vitro Gene Transfer to Chondrocytes and Synovial Fibroblasts by Adenoviral Vectors

    • Jean-Noel Gouze, Martin J. Stoddart, Elvire Gouze, Glyn D. Palmer, Steven C. Ghivizzani, Alan J. Grodzinsky et al.

    Pages 147-163

14. Changes of Chondrocyte Metabolism In Vitro

    • Anne-Marie Freyria, Michel Becchi

    Pages 165-182

15. Analysis of Chondrocyte Functional Markers and Pericellular Matrix Components by Flow Cytometry

    • Gust Verbruggen, Jun Wang, Lai Wang, Dirk Elewaut, Eric M. Veys

    Pages 183-208

16. A Simple and Reliable Assay of Proteoglycan Synthesis by Cultured Chondrocytes

    • Frédéric De Ceuninck, Audrey Caliez

    Pages 209-217

17. Assays of Proteoglycan and Collagen Degradation in Cultures of Rabbit Cartilage Explants

    • Christophe Lesur, Massimo Sabatini

    Pages 219-236

18. Production of Antibodies Against Degradative Neoepitopes in Aggrecan

    • John S. Mort, Peter J. Roughley

    Pages 237-249

19. Immunoassays for Collagens in Chondrocyte and Cartilage Explant Cultures

    • R. Clark Billinghurst, Fackson Mwale, Anthony Hollander, Mirela Ionescu, A. Robin Poole

    Pages 251-273

20. Detection of Apoptosis in Cartilage In Situ and in Isolated Chondrocytes

    • Darryl D. D’Lima, Klaus Kuhn, Martin K. Lotz

    Pages 275-289

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis, is generally characterized by a slowly progressive degeneration of articular cartilage, particularly in the weight-bearing joints. It has a stronger prevalence in women, and its incidence increases with age. OA is a major and growing health concern in developed countries, owing to steadily increasing life expectancy and the demand for better quality of life. Because of its chronic nature and nonfatal outcome, OA affects the growing population of the elderly over an increasing time span. Moreover, despite its relatively benign character, OA is one of the most disabling diseases; it is responsible for increasing financial and social burdens in terms of medical treatments, forced inactivity, loss of mobility, and dependence. Despite a growing awareness of OA as a medical problem that has yet to reach its maximum impact on society, there is a surprising absence of effective medical treatments beyond pain control and surgery. So far, only symptom-modifying drugs are available, while there remains a major demand for disease-modifying treatments of proven clinical efficacy. This demand will hopefully be met in the future by some of the drugs that have been pressed into development and are now at different stages of clinical investigation. Nevertheless, the current lack of effective treatments reflects a still insufficient knowledge of cartilage with respect to its metabolism, interactions with other joint tissues, and causes and mechanisms (possibly of very different nature) leading to failure of its turnover.

• Division de Rhumatologie, Institut de Recherches Servier, Suresnes, France

  Massimo Sabatini, Philippe Pastoureau, Frédéric Ceuninck

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