Physiological mechanisms adopted by chondrocytes in regulating longitudinal bone growth in rats

1. Chondrocyte activities within growth plate cartilage are the principal determinants of longitudinal bone growth, and it was the aim of this investigation to assess how these cell activities are modulated under various growth rate conditions. Using proximal tibial growth plates from rats of different ages, growth rate was determined by fluorochrome labelling and incident light fluorescence microscopy. Various cellular parameters contributing to longitudinal bone growth were quantified by light microscopic stereology. The size of the proliferating cell population ('growth fraction') was estimated by autoradiography (using [3H]thymidine labelling). 2. A comparison between data for suckling (21-day-old) and fast-growing (35-day-old) rats revealed that growth acceleration is achieved almost exclusively by cell-shape modelling, namely by an increase in final cell height and a decrease in lateral diameter, whereas final cell volume and surface area are slightly reduced. Cell proliferation rate in the longitudinal direction and net matrix production per cell remain unchanged. The physiological increase in linear growth rate thus appears to be based principally upon a controlled structural modulation of the chondrocyte phenotype. On the other hand, a physiological reduction in growth rate (i.e. growth deceleration) effected during the transition from pre-puberty (35-day-old rats) to maturity (80-day-old rats) is achieved by simultaneous decreases in several chondrocyte parameters, including cell height (i.e. phenotype modulation), cell volume and proliferation rate (in the longitudinal direction). However, chondrocytes continue to produce matrix at a level comparable to that attained during the period characterized by high growth rates (i.e. at 21 and 35 days). Cartilage matrix thus appears to play a subordinate role in regulating longitudinal bone growth rate. The duration of the hypertrophic cell activity (i.e. phenotype modulation) phase remains constant (at approximately 2 days) under the various growth rate conditions. 3. The findings presented in this study indicate that measurement of bulk parameters such as [35S]sulphate incorporation into matrix components, [3H]thymidine uptake by cells and growth plate height are of limited value as estimators of longitudinal bone growth, since changes in the parameters that these measurements quantify bear little relationship to changes in linear growth rate, and may be useful only as indicators of total growth plate activity.