Effects of Tissue Transglutaminase on Human Chondrocytes Adhesion to Degenerated Articular Cartilage

Kim, Eun Mi; Ahn, Hyun Jeong; Seong, Sang Cheol; Lee, Myung Chul

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of tissue transglutaminase(tTG) on chondrocyte adhesion to degenerated cartilage in vitro.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Human cartilage explant and chondrocytes were harvested from patients who underwent knee replacement arthroplasties for osteoarthritis. The articular cartilage surface was cut into a disc. Immunohistochemical methods was performed to detect the presence of fibronectin in articular surface. Human chondrocytes were transferred onto degenerated cartilage discs. To evaluate the effect of tTG involvement, tTG was added to the cell suspension or coated onto degenerated cartilage surface. The surface-attached cells were quantitated using the MTS assay.
RESULTS
Fibronectin(FN) increased the surface of degenerated cartilage than normal cartilage. The addition of 100 and 1000 mug/ml of tTG to the cell suspension enhanced the cell adhesion to degenerated cartilages. On occasion of the involvement of 40 mug/ml of tTG, the surface coated with tTG showed an increase in the adhesion of cell as compared to the addition of tTG to the cell suspensions.
CONCLUSION
The involvement of tTG to FN-exposed degenerated cartilage enhanced the chondrocyte adhesion. These findings may be applied to developing a novel tool of intraarticular injection using chondrocytes for osteoarthritis treatment.