Hi Subash,

thats interesting observation. And i have never observed this during differentiation. I was going through the literature i found this article which may be of use to you. But it does not state any signifcance though. They say it may the adaptive mechanism. If you come across any other relevant literature please do share.

Excellent, Sudha, I also mentioned based on that paper, that did support me. Since I was trying to see difference between three groups and I see some difference in number of lipid droplets though I need more data,

Best,

Subhash

Multilineage Differentiation

http://www.kumc.edu/Documents/msctc/Baghaban%20Eslaminejad%20Iran%20J%20Med%20Sci.%202014%20.pdf

Thanks, Krishnan,

That paper you uploaded a is good food for thought. On the other hand, if you have paid attention to the paper Sudha uploaded, it is in vivo situation also where lipid droplets are common and may be necessary or could be a marker of something. And these must have some significance. Are they energy source for the very slow growing chondrocytes.

Though my observation in vitro chondrogenesis does not differ much from in vivo report of 1965 paper,

Thanks for you paper, it is an excellent paper,

Subhash

Lou Lippiello andc Henry Mankin described lipid dropletsin chondrocytes in human adult OA cartilage back in the 1970s. It seems from more recent studies that they may well reflect abnormal cell metabolism, especially as they accumulate with ageing.and are also associated with cartilage degeneration, as in OA. This topic has evaded any serious attention for many years but it is one that requires careful study.For instance, is it indirectly associated autophagy ?

Thanks, Robin, 

I strongly agree with you. Probably this needs further serious attention. Relation to autophagy and OA is a viable option. It needs to look into carefully in vivo and even in vitro chondrogenesis (studying different factors). And the later will affect transplantation of chondrocytes or cartilages or micromass. 

Your feedback is very important. Thanks, I will keep on exploring,

Best regards,

Subhash Juneja, TWH

Human articular chondrocytes are very efficient at taking up lipids and cells derived from OA patients generally accumulate more than ones from non OA donors. I have put many OA chondrocyte cultures through the standard tri-lineage differentiation and often get as good an accumulation of lipid droplets with adipogenic medium as I would with a mesenchymal stem cell culture (and the osteogenesis is pretty good as well!). I've also seen very high lipid build up in the subchondral bone of numerous OA donors and, given the detrimental effect of lipids on chondrocyte metabolism, I am in agreement with the legendary Prof. Poole in that it warrants further investigation (especially as I failed to get funding approx 20 years ago to look at that vey thing!)

Thanks, Dr. Wardale,

Your very valuable answer and comments along with Dr. Poole's comments and Sudha's comments encourages this area needs serious attention in OA area. In my case, I was surprised to see lipid droplets first time in EM pictures of cartilages I generated from MSCs and that is the reason I put this question on RG site. And got feedback. Will keep posted.

Best regards,

Subhash Juneja

You can please refer to the link below to obtain certain valuable informations:-

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=iKzvCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=significance+of+lipid+droplets+in+chondrocytes+in+cartilage&source=bl&ots=hSAG5xYlkd&sig=K40BsWwBrFYe_8It2fcmTqxX2nE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CE0Q6AEwCWoVChMIqsD-1cuAxwIVi5GOCh0mVQR-#v=onepage&q=significance%20of%20lipid%20droplets%20in%20chondrocytes%20in%20cartilage&f=false

Dear Sandip,

Thanks a lot, I will look into those pages,

Best regards,

Subhash

Hi Subhash,

that is a good question.  To my knowledge, it is not very common to find lipid droplets in articular and fibrocartilage, however, it is common to find large lipid droplets in chondrocytes of elastic cartilage in some species.  I am going to publish a paper confirming that.