RESEARCH ARTICLE
Immunolocalization of Proteoglycans in Meckel’s Cartilage of the Rat
Khansa Taha Ababneh, Taiseer Hussain Al-Khateeb*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 177
Last Page: 183
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-3-177
DOI: 10.2174/1874210600903010177
Article History:
Received Date: 22/12/2008Revision Received Date: 4/2/2009
Acceptance Date: 26/2/2009
Electronic publication date: 22/8/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and distribution of proteoglycans within Meckel’s cartilage of rat embryos. A standard indirect immunoperoxidase technique was used on paraffin sections of rat heads. Sections were incubated with monoclonal antibodies recognising core protein epitopes in the proteoglycans versican and CD44. Polyclonal antibodies localized the proteoglycans decorin, biglycan and lumican. Versican was expressed by chondrocytes, but very weekly by the extracellular matrix. Decorin was strongly expressed by both of chondrocytes and the ECM. Both of biglycan and lumican were moderately expressed by chondrocytes, but weakly by the extracellular matrix. CD44 was weakly expressed by chondrocytes only, without staining of the ECM. It is concluded that Meckel’s cartilage chondrocytes express the proteoglycans versican, decorin, biglycan, lumican and CD44 at variable levels during development in the rat. Such data are important for a greater understanding of the changes that take place during mandibular development. Further studies are needed to elucidate the exact role of proteoglycans during Meckel’s cartilage and mandibular organogenesis.
