Cartilage canal growth: experimental approach in the rat tibia

This paper studies the influence of an antimitotic factor (puromycin) and a hormonal factor (thyroid hormone, TH) on canal growth. The tibiae of 15 six-day-old rats were cultured in a serum-free chemically defined medium. The cultures were carried out for as long as 6 days. Our results show: (1) canal growth is not dependent on perichondrium or chondro-epiphysis growth; (2) the canal is greater and has a complex pattern in a triiodothyronine (T3)-treated assay group; (3) round and multinucleated cells are more numerous in the T3-treated assay group than in the other groups. We hypothesize that the canal grows by a physiological phenomenon of programmed cell death and that it is stimulated by TH.