Chondrocyte Totally Explained

Everything about Chondrocyte totally explained

Chondrocytes (from Greek chondros cartilage + kytos cell) are the only cells found in cartilage. They produce and maintain the cartilaginous matrix, which consists mainly of collagen and proteoglycans. Although chondroblast is still commonly used to describe an immature chondrocyte, use of the term is discouraged, for it's technically inaccurate since the progenitor of chondrocytes (which are mesenchymal stem cells) can also differentiate into osteoblasts.

Differentiation

From least- to terminally-differentiated, the chondrocytic lineage is:

Colony-forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F)
Mesenchymal stem cell / marrow stromal cell (MSC)
Chondrocyte
Hypertrophic chondrocyte

When referring to bone or cartilage, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are commonly known as osteochondrogenic (or osteogenic, chondrogenic, osteoprogenitor, etc.) cells since a single MSC has shown the ability to differentiate into chondrocytes or osteoblasts, depending on the medium. In vivo, differentiation of an MSC in a vascularized area (such as bone) yields an osteoblast, whereas differentiation of an MSC in a non-vascularized area (such as cartilage) yields a chondrocyte. Chondrocytes undergo terminal differentiation when they become hypertrophic during endochondral ossification. This last stage is characterized by major phenotypic changes in the cell.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Chondrocyte'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://chondrocyte.totallyexplained.com">Chondrocyte Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.