Fig. 6. Effects of MTf overexpression on chondrogenic differentiation of ATDC5 cells in response to ConA. ConA (5-20 µg ml^–1) or sConA (35 µg ml^–1) was added to the cultures in the presence of 5% serum, transferrin and selenite with no other growth factors from day 10, every four days or every other day, respectively. (A) Rabbit MTf levels in the cell layer of Pc1 (lane 1), Pc2 (lane 2), MTf1 (lane 3) and MTf5 (lane4) were analysed by immunoblotting. The proportion of spherical/polygonal chondrocytes among total cells (B) and the uronic acid content (C) were determined on day 23. (D) The mRNA levels of aggrecan, collagen type IIA, collagen type IIB and GAPDH were determined on day 23 by RT-PCR and Southern-blot analysis. (E) The appearance of ATDC5-MTf5 cells exposed to 15 µg ml^–1 ConA in the presence or absence of mAb2 (50 µg ml^–1) (Experiment A) or pAb1 serum (1%) (Experiment B) on day 12. The lectin and/or antibodies were added to the cultures on day 10. Bar, 30 µm.

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