How best to preserve and reveal the structural intricacies of cartilaginous tissue.

Hunziker, Ernst Bruno; Lippuner, Kurt; Shintani, Nahoko (2014). How best to preserve and reveal the structural intricacies of cartilaginous tissue. Matrix biology, 39, pp. 33-43. Elsevier 10.1016/j.matbio.2014.08.010

Preview

Text 1-s2.0-S0945053X14001632-main.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (CC-BY-NC-ND). Download (1MB) | Preview

No single processing technique is capable of optimally preserving each and all of the structural entities of cartilaginous tissue. Hence, the choice of methodology must necessarily be governed by the nature of the component that is targeted for analysis, for example, fibrillar collagens or proteoglycans within the extracellular matrix, or the chondrocytes themselves. This article affords an insight into the pitfalls that are to be encountered when implementing the available techniques and how best to circumvent them. Adult articular cartilage is taken as a representative pars pro toto of the different bodily types. In mammals, this layer of tissue is a component of the synovial joints, wherein it fulfills crucial and diverse biomechanical functions. The biomechanical functions of articular cartilage have their structural and molecular correlates. During the natural course of postnatal development and after the onset of pathological disease processes, such as osteoarthritis, the tissue undergoes structural changes which are intimately reflected in biomechanical modulations. The fine structural intricacies that subserve the changes in tissue function can be accurately assessed only if they are faithfully preserved at the molecular level. For this reason, a careful consideration of the tissue-processing technique is indispensable. Since, as aforementioned, no single methodological tool is capable of optimally preserving all constituents, the approach must be pre-selected with a targeted structure in view. Guidance in this choice is offered.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

179 since deposited on 11 Feb 2015
21 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item