title: Insight into characteristic features of cartilage growth plate as a physiological template for bone formation.
abstract: Cartilage growth plate is a natural template from both a biochemical and structural point of view and allows osteoblasts migration, proliferation, differentiation, and ultimately, bone formation. It is evolutionary adjusted to support bone formation within strictly defined spatial framework serving as an interesting model for studying more mechanistically aspects which might be important for specific scaffold-based bone tissue engineering strategies. Surprisingly little is known about the geometric features of this physiological template. To this purpose we analyzed cartilage growth plate from rat, mouse, and human costochondral junction and tibia. High-resolution X-ray tomography showed that pore size in the zone of provisional calcification was within 20 to 30 µm range and in the metaphysis in 35 to 50 µm range. The thickness of calcified longitudinal septa in zone of provisional calcification was 3 to 5 µm and in metaphysis 7 to 12 µm. The porosity varied from 84 to 88%. We observed that numerical values characteristic for cartilage growth plate were not significantly influenced by the species of origin, by the type of bone, or by age. In addition, electron microscopy of calcified fragments of longitudinal septa showed that the calcium aggregates were globular, connected with each other, and formed a shell covering cartilage matrix located within longitudinal septa.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Woloska 141, Warsaw, 02-507, Poland.
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jaroszewicz
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Medical University of Warsaw, Chalubinskiego 5, Warsaw, 02-004, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kosowska
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, 60 Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove, QLD, 4059, Australia.
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hutmacher
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Woloska 141, Warsaw, 02-507, Poland.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Swieszkowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Medical University of Warsaw, Chalubinskiego 5, Warsaw, 02-004, Poland.
authors.forename: Stanisław
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moskalewski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002356:Cartilage / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D006132:Growth Plate / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D010012:Osteogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D016062:Porosity; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014056:Tomography, X-Ray
keywords: 3D scaffold; calcium deposits; cartilage growth plate; microtomography; mineralization