NFATc1 marks articular cartilage progenitors and negatively determines articular chondrocyte differentiation.

ABSTRACT: The origin and differentiation mechanism of articular chondrocytes remain poorly understood. Broadly, the difference in developmental mechanisms of articular and growth-plate cartilage is still less elucidated. Here, we identified that the nuclear factor of activated T-cells cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1) is a crucial regulator of articular, but not growth-plate, chondrocyte differentiation during development. At the early stage of mouse knee development (embryonic day 13.5), NFATc1-expressing cells were mainly located in the flanking region of the joint interzone. With development, NFATc1-expressing cells generated almost all articular chondrocytes but not chondrocytes in limb growth-plate primordium. NFATc1-expressing cells displayed prominent capacities for colony formation and multipotent diff

SUBMITTER: Zhang F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10076019 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature