FIGURE 2.

Better cartilage quality of chondrocytes generated from periosteal tissue when exposed to Aggrecan or COMP. Chondrocytic cells derived from ectopic generated cartilage out of periosteum tissue were redifferentiated under control conditions (white bars) and with Aggrecan (2 μg/ml; dotted bars) or COMP (200 μg/ml; black bars) for 7 days. (A) Induction of chondrogenic markers Sox9, Col2a1, and Acan mRNA expression was determined by RT-qPCR, normalized for 28S rRNA expression and set relative to baseline (t = 0) values (indicated by horizontal line). (B) Induction of hypertrophic markers Runx2, Col10a1, and Alpl mRNA expression was determined similarly to samples from (A). (C) Fibrocartilage marker Col1a1 mRNA expression was determined similarly to samples from (A). In graphs, error bars represent mean ± SEM. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) are shown by an *, ** = p < 0.01, *** = p < 0.0001, ns = not significant.