SOX9 keeps growth plates and articular cartilage healthy by inhibiting chondrocyte dedifferentiation/osteoblastic redifferentiation.

ABSTRACT: Cartilage is essential throughout vertebrate life. It starts developing in embryos when osteochondroprogenitor cells commit to chondrogenesis, activate a pancartilaginous program to form cartilaginous skeletal primordia, and also embrace a growth-plate program to drive skeletal growth or an articular program to build permanent joint cartilage. Various forms of cartilage malformation and degeneration diseases afflict humans, but underlying mechanisms are still incompletely understood and treatment options suboptimal. The transcription factor SOX9 is required for embryonic chondrogenesis, but its postnatal roles remain unclear, despite evidence that it is down-regulated in osteoarthritis and heterozygously inactivated in campomelic dysplasia, a severe skeletal dysplasia characterized postnat

SUBMITTER: Haseeb A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7923381 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature