title: Confocal imaging of mouse mandibular condyle cartilage.
abstract: Mice are commonly used to study the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and to model human TMJ disease. However, evaluating TMJ pathology in mice using standard histologic methods is time consuming, labor intensive, and dependent upon investigators' expertise at consistently orienting and sectioning across tiny specimens. We describe a method that uses confocal microscopy to rapidly and reliably assess indicators of mandibular condyle cartilage pathology in mice. We demonstrate the utility of this method for detecting abnormalities in chondrocyte distribution in mice lacking lubricin (Prg4), the major boundary lubricant of articular cartilage. We further show that the method can provide information about recombination sites and efficiency in mandibular cartilage for Cre-driver strains. Because specimen preparation and data acquisition with confocal microscopy are simple and fast, the method can serve as a primary screening tool for TMJ pathology, before proceeding to complicated, time consuming, secondary analyses.
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Department of Orthodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: A Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Department of Orthodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Warman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008335:Mandibular Condyle / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods*; D011509:Proteoglycans / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013704:Temporomandibular Joint / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D013705:Temporomandibular Joint Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000099158:Proteoglycan 4
chemical_list: D011509:Proteoglycans; C498837:Prg4 protein, mouse; D000099158:Proteoglycan 4