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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Orthop Res. 2009 Jun;27(6):785–792. doi: 10.1002/jor.20805

Figure 1. PGE2 regulates chondrocyte gene expression and interacts with BMP-2 in a gene specific manner.

Figure 1

Primary murine sternal chondrocytes were isolated and plated in monolayer culture. Sixteen hours later, the cultures were treated with either vehicle, 1 μM PGE2, 100 ng/ml BMP-2, or PGE2 and BMP-2 in combination. Total RNA was isolated from the cultures after 2, 5, or 8 days of culture and real time PCR was performed as described in Methods (A–D). The gene expression levels of type II collagen (col2a1) (A), matrix-metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) (B), type X collagen (colX) (C), and alkaline phosphatase (AP) (D) were normalized to β-actin. The relative expression levels were based upon comparison to the level of gene expression observed in the two day vehicle treated control cultures. Alkaline phosphatase activity was determined in the cultures by measuring the conversion of p-nitrophenyl phosphate to p-nitrophenol as described in Methods (E). Asterisk denotes p≤0.05 with comparisons made to the control value at each respective day.