ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Longitudinal skeletal growth is achieved by enchondral ossification in epiphyseal growth plates (GP) of long bones and vertebrae. These highly organized cartilaginous tissues contain chondrocytes of all differentiational stages classified in three distinct zones named resting, proliferative and hypertrophic. Separated analysis of individual zones is essential in basic GP research thus efficiency of different zonal separation methods confers high ...

Background: Cell-mediated initiation of enchondral ossification is essential for growth plate maturation. The matrix mineralization inhibitors matrix Gla protein (MGP) and osteocalcin (OC) represent key regulators of matrix mineralization and are highly expressed in growth plate chondrocytes. Pharmacological or nutritional phylloquinone (K1) depletion is known to affect skeletal mineralization by reduced gamma-carboxilisation of MGP and OC. Constituents of mineral matrix such ...