Dataset Information

Gene Expression Across the Human Growth Plate

ABSTRACT: Chondrocytes advance through the long bone growth plate in synchrony, allowing their segregation into one of four zones each corresponding to a different phase of maturation. Beginning from the epiphysis the recognized zones are: reserve, proliferative, prehypertrophic, and hypertrophic. A fifth zone, the perichondrium is located in apposition to the growth plate at its circumferential surface. The progression of chondrocytes through these zones, and hence growth, is regulated by a complex interplay of signaling pathways, defects in which lead to osteochondrodysplasias. At present, there are over 370 recognized skeletal disorders, slightly more than half of which have been explained at the molecular level. Through a combination of laser microdissection, linear mRNA amplification, and GeneChip analysis, our laboratory has acquired the zone specific expression profile of chondrocytes from the distal femoral growth plates of two normal patients. On average, transcripts interrogated by 12,193 or 18,454 GeneChip probe sets (out of a possible 54,000 probe sets) were present in patients 1 and 2, respectively. The homologous inter-array correlations for the log(2) intensities were ≥ 0.91±0.01. Keywords: Chondrocyte differentiation program.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE9160 | GEO | 2013/09/13

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA102713

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Articular and growth plate cartilage have comparable structures consisting of three distinct layers of chondrocytes, suggesting similar differentiation programs and therefore similar gene expression profiles. To address this hypothesis and to explore transcriptional changes that occur during the onset of articular and growth plate cartilage divergence, we used microdissection of 10-day-old rat proximal tibial epiphyses, microarray analysis, and bioinformatics to compare gene expression profiles in individual layers of articular and growth plate cartilage. We found that many genes that were spatially upregulated in intermediate/deep zone of articular cartilage were also spatially upregulated in resting zone of growth plate cartilage (overlap greater than expected by chance, P < 0.001). Interestingly, superficial zone of articular cartilage showed an expression profile with similarities to both proliferative and hypertrophic zones of growth plate cartilage (P < 0.001 each). Additionally, significant numbers of known proliferative zone markers (3 out of 6) and hypertrophic zone markers (27 out of 126) were spatially upregulated in superficial zone compared to intermediate/deep zone (more than expected by chance, P < 0.001 each). In conclusion, we provide evidence that intermediate/deep zone of articular cartilage has a gene expression profile more similar to resting zone of growth plate cartilage, whereas superficial zone has a gene expression profile more similar to proliferative and hypertrophic zones. 10-day-old rat proximal tibial epiphyses were manually microdissected into articular cartilage superficial (SZ) and intermediate/deep (IDZ) zones and growth plate cartilage resting zone (RZ) for total RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We used 10-day-old animals because, at this age, the secondary ossification center has recently begun to form and divides the epiphysis into articular cartilage distally and growth plate cartilage more centrally. The 4 SZ samples were taken from animals 5-8, respectively, whereas the 4 IDZ and 4 RZ samples were each taken from animals 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8, respectively.

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Gene Expression Across the Human Growth Plate

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