Rs. Goomer et al., PT-12, a putative Ras-activated proliferation-dependent gene, is expressedin patellar tendon and not in anterior cruciate ligament, J ORTHOP R, 17(5), 1999, pp. 745-747
We describe a gene (PT-12) that is expressed in the patellar tendon and not
in the anterior cruciate ligament. We used a recently developed polymerase
chain reaction-based subtractive cDNA analysis to discover genes that are
overexpressed in the patellar tendon but not expressed in the anterior cruc
iate ligament; the long-term objective was to find genes that are central t
o the self-repair of the patellar tendon, in contrast with the inability of
the anterior cruciate ligament to launch a repair response following injur
y. PT-12 is a homologue of human S2 or mouse LLRep3 ribosomal genes, which
are known to be overexpressed in highly proliferating cells. This study ope
ns a new vista to the development of techniques and reagents to study the d
ifferences between two periarticular tissues (i.e., the patellar tendon and
anterior cruciate ligament) that differ primarily in their ability to self
-repair.