Regulators of articular cartilage homeostasis

Prevention of hypertrophic differentiation is essential for successful cartilage repair strategies. Although this process is essential for longitudinal growth, it also is part of degenerative cartilage diseases such as osteoarthiritis. Moreover, it limits the use of cell types prone to this process for articular cartilage repair; cartilage that becomes hypertrophic can be transformed into endochondral bone. Therefore, fundamental knowledge on hypertrophic differentiation might prove crucial for cartilage repair strategies. In this thesis we have focused on: 1) revealing the mechanism that prevents healthy articular chondrocytes from undergoing hypertrophic differentiation, 2) exploring whether this mechanisms is disturbed in joint disease (model), 3) investigating the effect of cartilage's environmental factors on this mechanism and 4) pioneering novel cartilage repair strategies that are not confounded by hypertrophic differentiation.