BACKGROUND: During osteoarthritis (OA), articular chondrocytes undergo phenotypic changes that resemble developmental patterns characteristic of growth plate chondrocytes. These phenotypic alterations lead to a hypertrophy-like phenotype characterized by altered production of extracellular matrix constituents and increased collagenase activity, which in turn results in cartilage destruction in OA disease. PURPOSE: To identify transcriptomic and epigenomic changes in murine primary articular chondrocytes undergoing hypertrophy-like differentiation in vitro. METHODS: We paired an in vitro 3D/pellet culture system that mimics chondrocyte hypertrophy with RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) and enhanced reduced representation of bisulfite sequencing (ERRBS). RESULTS: We identified hypertrophy-associated changes in DNA methylation patterns in vitro. Integration of RNA-Seq and ERRBS datasets identified associations between changes in methylation and gene expression. CONCLUSION: Our integrative analyses showed that hypertrophic differentiation of articular chondrocytes is accompanied by transcriptomic and epigenomic changes in vitro. SOURCE: Piali Mukherjee (pim2001@med.cornell.edu) -  Weill Cornell Medicine

Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE154949: Changes in DNA methylation accompany changes in gene expression during chondrocyte hypertrophic differentiation in vitro.