Abstract
Cartilages form the primary skeleton of vertebrate embryos, ensure its rapid growth, and provide mandatory templates upon which definitive bone is progressively laid down. Chondrogenesis is effected by a single cell type, the chondrocyte, which is of mesenchymal origin. Chondrocytes sequentially fulfill the different functions of cartilages by undergoing multiple steps of differentiation. Our main interest over recent years has been to identify transcription factors that specifically control the chondrocyte differentiation pathway. We found that L-Sox5, Sox6, and Sox9 were able to bind and activate a cartilage-specific enhancer of collagen type 2 gene (Col2a1) and were specifically co-expressed with Col2a1 during chondrogenesis in vivo. These data, supported by the notion that many Sox factors control cell fate determination in various lineages, strongly suggested that L-Sox5, Sox6, and Sox9 act as master chondrogenic transcription factors. This hypothesis was tested and confirmed by assessing the consequences of the null mutation of their genes on mouse embryo development. We review here these studies, with a special emphasis on LSoxS and Sox6. Akiyama and collaborators address the role of Sox9 in an accompanying review.
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© 2002 Springer Basel AG
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Lefebvre, V., de Crombrugghe, B., Behringer, R.R. (2002). The transcription factors L-Sox5 and Sox6 are essential for cartilage formation. In: Hascall, V.C., Kuettner, K.E. (eds) The Many Faces of Osteoarthritis. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8133-3_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8133-3_10
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel
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