In November, the Collagen Biology and Genetic Disorders Lab traveled to San Diego, CA to present a poster at the 1st Annual Joint Meeting of the American Society for Matrix Biology and the Society for Glycobiology. The conference provided the opportunity for medical professionals and researchers involved in disciplines related to matrix biology and glycobiology to discuss current issues and recent discoveries.
The Collagen lab presented a poster titled: “Evidence for an effect of the morphogen retinoic acid through stimulated MMP9 expression on the turnover of collagen type IX by cultured chondrocytes.” In the world of cartilage tissue engineering, understanding how different collagen types come together to form a cartilage matrix is fundamental and important. One hypothesis remains that removing Type IX collagen from the surface of growing Type II collagen allows fibrils to grow laterally. This affects the overall structure of the growing cartilage matrix, and is one important aspect to understand when trying to engineer cartilage tissue. The Collagen Lab was able to identify 2 specific enzymes that play roles in selectively removing Type IX collagen. These enzymes were identified as MMP3 and MMP9. Results imply that MMP3 breaks Type IX collagen into fragment pieces while MMP9 may help degrade these fragments even further. These findings aid in the understanding of the complicated process of cartilage development.
You can find the abstract for this poster here. The poster is on display outside of room BB1010 in the Health Sciences Building.