Although
osteoarthritis is characterized by a progressive loss of the extracellular cartilage matrix, very little is known about the fate of articular chondrocytes during the progression of the disease. In this study we examined the expression of
syndecan-3, a marker of early chondrocyte differentiation, and
annexin VI, a marker of late chondrocyte differentiation, in mammalian embryonic growth plate cartilage and normal and osteoarthritic human articular cartilage. Whereas
syndecan-3 was expressed in the proliferative and hypertrophic zones of growth platecartilage, immunostaining for
annexin VI waspredominately found in the hypertrophic and mineralizing zones of fetal bovine growth plate cartilage. Approximately 20% of chondrocytes were immunopositive for
syndecan-3 in normal human articular cartilage, the number of syndecan-3-expressing chondrocytes significantly increased during the progression of
osteoarthritis with more than 80% syndecan-3-positive cells in the upper zone of severely affected osteoarthritic cartilage. Similarly, the number of
annexin VI-expressing cells significantly increased in the upper cartilage zones during the progression of
osteoarthritis. Furthermore, immunostaining for
proliferating cell nuclear antigen, a marker for cell proliferation, was detected in chondrocytes in the upper zone of osteoarthritic cartilage. Double-labeling experiments with
antibodies against
syndecan-3 and
annexin VI revealed chondrocytes that expressed only
syndecan-3, and cells that expressed both
syndecan-3 and
annexin VI. These results suggest that the expression of early (
proliferating cell nuclear antigen,
syndecan-3) and late
differentiation markers (
annexin VI,
alkaline phosphatase) is activated in chondrocytes of osteoarthritic cartilage.