Bone Abstracts

Introduction: The matrilin-3 polymorphism T298M has been described to be associated with hand osteoarthritis in the carpometacarpal joint 1 (CMC1) and with spinal disc degeneration. In vitro studies revealed that expression levels, processing and secretion of matrilin-3 T298M were similar to the wt protein. Structural analysis indicated an impact on the formation of collagen II/IX/XI heterofibrils, whereas the binding to collagen was not affected. We have now generate...

COMP (Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein) is a member of the thrombospondin family of extracellular matrix proteins and also referred to as thrombospondin-5. Mutations in COMP lead to chondrodysplasias. Here we studied COMP in zebrafish (Danio rerio) which is a powerful vertebrate model organism. In silico analysis revealed that only one COMP coding gene exists in zebrafish and that the domain structure of COMP is fully conserved. Inspection of gene locus and phyloge...