Multiple phases of chondrocyte enlargement underlie differences in skeletal proportions.

ABSTRACT: The wide diversity of skeletal proportions in mammals is evident upon a survey of any natural history museum's collections and allows us to distinguish between species even when reduced to their calcified components. Similarly, each individual is comprised of a variety of bones of differing lengths. The largest contribution to the lengthening of a skeletal element, and to the differential elongation of elements, comes from a dramatic increase in the volume of hypertrophic chondrocytes in the growth plate as they undergo terminal differentiation. However, the mechanisms of chondrocyte volume enlargement have remained a mystery. Here we use quantitative phase microscopy to show that mammalian chondrocytes undergo three distinct phases of volume increase, including a phase of massive cell swe

SUBMITTER: Cooper KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3606657 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature