Volume 52 (11): 1405-1413, 2004 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Perlecan Immunolocalizes to Perichondrial Vessels and Canals in Human Fetal Cartilaginous Primordia in Early Vascular and Matrix Remodeling Events Associated with Diarthrodial Joint Development
Institute of Bone and Joint Research, University of Sydney (Department of Surgery), at the Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney, St Leonards, NSW, Australia (JM,SS,JW), and Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, Australia (JW) Correspondence to: Dr. J. Melrose, Raymond Purves Bone and Joint Research Laboratories, Institute of Bone and Joint Research, Level 5, University Clinic, Building B26, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia. E-mail: jmelrose{at}med.usyd.edu.au
The aim of this study was to ascertain how perlecan was localized in human fetal cartilaginous joint rudiment tissues. Perlecan was immunolocalized in human fetal (1214-week-old) toe, finger, knee, elbow, shoulder, and hip joint rudiments using a monoclonal antibody to domain-1 of perlecan (MAb A76). Perlecan had a widespread distribution in the cartilaginous joint rudiments and growth plates and was also prominent in a network of convoluted hairpin loop-type vessels at the presumptive articulating surfaces of joints. Perlecan was also present in small perichondrial venules and arterioles along the shaft of the developing long bones, small blood vessels in the synovial lining and joint capsules, and in distinctive arrangements of cartilage canals in the knee, elbow, shoulder, and hip joint rudiments. Perlecan was notably absent from CD-31-positive metaphyseal vessels in the hip, knee, shoulder, and fingers. These vessels may have a role in the nutrition of the expanding cell populations in these developing joint tissues and in the establishment of the secondary centers of ossification in the long bones, which is essential for endochondral ossification. (J Histochem Cytochem 52:14051413, 2004)
Key Words: Perlecan diarthrodial joint development cartilage development human fetal cartilage cartilage canals
PERLECAN is a heparan sulfate (HS)- or chondroitin sulfate (CS)-substituted proteoglycan (PG) with roles in cell growth and differentiation (Aviezer et al. 1994
The carboxyl terminal peptide domain of perlecan, endorepellin, displays anti-angiogenic properties (Mongiat et al. 2003b
Perlecan has previously been immunolocalised in a range of mouse tissues (Handler et al. 1997
Reagents and Antibodies Histochoice was an Amresco product (Solon, OH). The monoclonal antibody (MAb) to perlecan domain I (A76) was prepared, characterized (Knox et al. 2001
Preparation of Human Fetal Tissues for Histological Procedures
Histochemistry
Immunohistochemistry
Perlecan was strongly localized to the pericellular matrix of chondrocytes in the cartilaginous joint rudiment and to the hypertrophic growth plate chondrocytes in joints of the fingers and toes (Figures 1A and 1C) . However, its levels were diminished at the margins of the cartilaginous rudiment. Perlecan was also a prominent component of a network of small blood vessels located at the presumptive articulating surface of these joints and to the basal lamina of small blood vessels in the synovial folds of the toe and finger joints and the adjacent perichondrial tissues (Figures 1B and 1D). Type IV collagen was also immunolocalized to the small vessels of the synovial folds and perichondrium but not to the vessels in the presumptive articulating surfaces of these joints (Figures 1E1G). However, these did stain positively for CD-31 (data not shown), as did the various arrangements of small vessels throughout the fetal finger (Figure 1H). Type I collagen was ubiquitously expressed throughout the developing finger, including the calcifying cartilage of the metaphysis (Figure 1I, asterisk), but was conspicuously absent from the cartilaginous rudiment itself.
Perlecan also displayed a pericellular immunolocalization pattern in the chondrocytes of the metachromatic PG- and collagen-rich cartilaginous rudiments of the developing ribs (Figures 2A and 2B) but was also a prominent component of a network of convoluted vessels at the margins of the cartilaginous rudiment (Figures 2C and 2D). Perlecan was also a prominent pericellular component around the chondrocytes within the cartilaginous joint rudiments of the knee and was also present in an intricate network of vessel- like structures at the developing margins of the presumptive articulating surfaces of the femoral condyles of 12-week-old human fetal tissues (Figures 3A and 3B). These surface vessels also stained positively for CD-31 and type IV collagen (Figures 3C and 3D). Red blood cells were discernible in some of these vessels (Figure 3C). However, the distorted shapes of the majority of the surface vessels were more reminiscent of lymphatic vessel networks than of blood vessels. Perlecan was also a prominent component of the 14-week metachromatic cartilaginous rudiments of the humerus (Figures 4A4D and 5K) , displaying a pericellular distribution in the elbow rudiment proper, and the synovial lining blood vessel and surface vessel networks (Figures 4B4D). This was reminiscent of the knee rudiments at week 12 (Figures 3A and 3B). Small perlecan-positive vessels were also observed in the perichondrium, extending along the axis of the humeral cartilaginous rudiment (Figure 4B).
The surface vessel networks of the 14-week human fetal knee were somewhat better defined compared with their counterparts in the 12-week specimens (Figures 5A, 5B, 5E, and 5F). Immunolocalization of type IV collagen (Figures 5A and 5F), CD-31 (Figures 5B and 5E) and perlecan (Figure 5C) again confirmed the presence of basal lamina components in these surface vessels. Red blood cells were also observed in some of these vessels using Nomarski interference contrast microscopy (Figure 5E). Immunolocalization of perlecan in the 14-week cartilaginous knee joint rudiments also delineated a number of larger vessels or canals deep within the rudiment proper, which were lined with perlecan (Figures 5H and 5I). These were also CD-31 (Figure 5G) and type I (Figure 5D) and type IV collagen-positive (data not shown). These cartilage canals had distinctive arrangements of vessels consisting of a single central smaller vessel, possibly a venule/arteriole, surrounded by four to six larger vessels. Collectively, such vessel arrangements were >100 µm in circumference and were located deep within the femoral or humeral rudiment (Figures 5H5O). Some variation in vessel arrangements was evident in the cartilage rudiments, with the outer canals of such canal arrangements of the shoulder being somewhat larger and more misshapen (Figures 5J and 5K) than those observed in the knee rudiments, which generally had a more regular circular geometry (Figures 5H and 5I). The morphology of the cartilage canals of the hip rudiment also differed markedly from those of the knee and shoulder rudiments (Figures 5L5O). All of the cartilaginous hip rudiment (Figure 5L) cartilage canals were lined with perlecan (Figure 5M), type IV collagen (data not shown), and were CD-31- (Figure 5N) and type I collagen- (Figure 5O) positive, which contrasted markedly with the rudiment proper, which contained only type II collagen (data not shown). Furthermore, such cartilage canals were not seen in 1214-week-old human fetal finger and toe rudiments. Although perlecan was present throughout the cartilaginous hip rudiment (Figures 6A and 6B) and its expression was elevated pericellularly around the hypertrophic growth plate chondrocytes, its distribution did not extend markedly past these cells into the calcifying cartilage and the metaphysis, despite the fact that perlecan was still strongly associated with small vessels in the perichondrium and joint capsule tissues of the femur (Figure 6C). The hip metaphyseal vessels were clearly delineated using the CD-31 (Figure 6D) and type IV collagen (data not shown) MAbs. However, these vessels did not stain for perlecan, whereas some residual deposits of perlecan were still detectable within the calcified cartilage (Figure 6C). Localization of type I collagen also clearly delineated the calcified structures (sinusoids) surrounding the metaphyseal vessels in the hip (Figure 6E). Type I collagen was also strongly expressed pericellularly by the most terminally differentiated hypertrophic growth plate chondrocytes in the hip rudiment (Figure 6E) but was totally absent in the cartilaginous hip rudiment proper, which contained type II collagen (data not shown). This permitted the frank demarcation of the metaphysis from the cartilaginous rudiment. Similar localization patterns were also observed for types I and IV collagen and CD-31 in the fetal fingers and toes (Figures 1A1I). Perlecan also did not localize with the metaphyseal vessels in the fingers and toes.
Endochondral bone formation involves a complex sequence of events that is initiated by condensation of mesenchymal cell aggregates to form the limb rudiment cartilage, which serves as a developmental scaffold for subsequent long bone development. An early stage in this process is the vascularization of the diaphysis perichondrium, transformation of peripheral chondrogenic cells into an osteogenic phenotype, and formation of a subperiosteal bone collar (Haines 1933
Intrachondral vascularization events have previously been investigated in the talus of the human foot (Cheng et al. 1997
Scanning electron microscopy has been used to examine blood vessel resin casts of human fetal knee joints to describe the sequence of angiogenic events leading up to vascularization of human fetal femoral cartilage and to the development of the femoral secondary center of ossification (Skawina et al. 1994
Vascular supplies similar to the surface vessel networks observed in the present investigation have also been identified in rabbit joint tissues, where long loops of arterioles supply blood to areas of synovium subjected to high levels of mechanical stress in the rabbit knee joint (Lindstrom and Branemark 1962
The major emphasis of the present study was to elucidate early vascular events associated with joint and long bone development. Perlecan was an abundant pericellular component of rudiment and growth plate chondrocytes. Therefore, the distribution of perlecan observed in the present study was consistent with perlecans' known chondrogenic properties (Iozzo et al. 1994
The function of perlecan in cartilage as a chondrogenic agent and as a regulator of long bone growth is well established (Iozzo et al. 1994 The findings of the present investigation raise the possibility that perlecan has additional roles in early vascularization events associated with the development of diarthrodial joints and the secondary centers of ossification.
Supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (project grant no. 211266) and by Research Grants from the Arthritis Foundation of Australia and Rebecca Cooper Medical Research Foundation, whose support is greatly appreciated.
Received for publication January 4, 2004; accepted June 6, 2004
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