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Review
. 2010 Apr;91(2):99-106.
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2613.2010.00707.x.

Lack of oxygen in articular cartilage: consequences for chondrocyte biology

Jérôme E Lafont  1
Affiliations
Review

Lack of oxygen in articular cartilage: consequences for chondrocyte biology

Jérôme E Lafont. Int J Exp Pathol. 2010 Apr.

Erratum in

  • Int J Exp Pathol. 2010 Jun;91(3):302

Abstract

Controlling the chondrocytes phenotype remains a major issue for cartilage repair strategies. These cells are crucial for the biomechanical properties and cartilage integrity because they are responsible of the secretion of a specific matrix. But chondrocyte dedifferentiation is frequently observed in cartilage pathology as well as in tissue culture, making their study more difficult. Given that normal articular cartilage is hypoxic, chondrocytes have a specific and adapted response to low oxygen environment. While huge progress has been performed on deciphering intracellular hypoxia signalling the last few years, nothing was known about the particular case of the chondrocyte biology in response to hypoxia. Recent findings in this growing field showed crucial influence of the hypoxia signalling on chondrocytes physiology and raised new potential targets to repair cartilage and maintain tissue integrity. This review will thus focus on describing hypoxia-mediated chondrocyte function in the native articular cartilage.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
HIFs regulation and signalling. Hydroxylation of HIF-α is inhibited in low oxygen environment (less than 5%) because prolylhydroxylases (PHDs) activity is dependent on oxygen. Then non-hydroxylated HIF-α can heterodimerize with HIF1-β, and translocate into the nucleus, where it binds to consensus sequences.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Importance of HIF-2α in cartilage repair strategies. Levels of oxygen are low in the surrounding tissues of joints (Lund-Olesen 1970; Ishikawa & Ito 1988). In articular chondrocytes, it promotes matrix deposition. Manipulating the oxygen-dependent transcription factor HIF-2α could be of help in cartilage repair strategies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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