In vitro proliferation of achondroplastic and normal mouse chondrocytes, before and after basic fibroblast growth factor stimulation

Achondroplasia in mice is a recessive genetic disorder, characterized by di sproportionate dwarfism with reduced bone growth. The cause of this chondro dystrophy is unknown. In this study normal and achondroplastic mouse chondrocytes were cultured i n monolayer primary culture, their differentiation was verified by immunofl uorescence and their growth was compared. The results showed that achondroplastic cells exhibited a higher proliferat ive activity than control cells of the same age, confirmed also by a thymid ine incorporation assay. Furthermore, basic fibroblast growth factor treatm ent was found to induce a strong increase in growth of normal mouse chondro cytes, while it did not stimulate statistically significant proliferation o f achondroplastic mouse cells. We suppose that this different growth rate could play a role in achondropla stic phenotype development.