Source
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To determine the consequences of mast cell (MC)-chondrocyte interactions.
METHODS:
Cocultured cells were analyzed histochemically, morphologically, biochemically, and functionally.
RESULTS:
Cocultured MC adhered to the chondrocytes and remained viable. Chondrocytes cocultured with nonactivated MC produced more proteoglycans than did chondrocytes cultured alone, and these proteoglycans possessed an intact hyaluronic acid-binding region. In contrast, most of the proteoglycans produced by chondrocytes cocultured with activated MC were degraded.
CONCLUSION:
These studies indicate that a complex interaction occurs in which the nonactivated MC stimulates biosynthesis and the activated MC degrades cartilage proteoglycans.