title: Monitoring of mechanical properties of serially passaged bovine articular chondrocytes by atomic force microscopy.
abstract: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool in imaging cells and tissues and probing their mechanical properties. Articular chondrocytes, the cells responsible for the production and maintenance of cartilaginous extracellular matrix in the knee joint, change their morphology and dedifferentiate during in vitro expansion culture. It was unclear if the mechanical properties of chondrocytes change accompanying phenotype variation. The elasticity of in vitro serially cultured bovine articular chondrocytes was investigated using AFM. The chondrocytes changed their morphology from round to spindle-like. The freeze-dried P0 chondrocytes showed significantly higher modulus than did the serially passaged (P1-P4) chondrocytes. The change of chondrocyte morphology was accompanied with a decrease of elastic modulus.
authors: Biomaterials Center, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
authors: Michal Jerzy
authors: MJ
authors: Wozniak
authors: Naoki
authors: N
authors: Kawazoe
authors: Tetsuya
authors: T
authors: Tateishi
authors: Guoping
authors: G
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D004548:Elasticity; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods; D012692:Serial Passage