Journal article

Publication year: 2002

Pages: 66-72

Journal: Anatomical Record

Volume number: 268

Issue number: 1

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.10135

Publisher: Wiley

Abstract: 

Cartilage resorption in forming primary fallow deer antlers was studied
by histochemistry and electron microscopy. A high activity of
tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), a histochemical marker of
skeletal resorbing cells, was first detected in cells located in the
mesenchymal tissue separating the columns of hypertrophic cartilage. No
cartilage resorption was observed in this region. Intense TRAP staining
occurred in large multinucleated cells (identified as inactive
osteoclasts) as well as in smaller cells (regarded as mononuclear
osteoclast progenitors). On the basis of these findings it was concluded
that this was the region where osteoclasts differentiated from
progenitor cells. Further proximally, the mineralized cartilage was
eroded by active osteoclasts that were located in Howship's lacunae and
exhibited an intense TRAP staining. Electron microscopy showed that the
cells identified as inactive osteoclasts lacked a polarized
organization. In contrast, the active osteoclasts in the zone of
cartilage resorption exhibited a typical polarized organization: the
nuclei congregated near the basolateral cell surface, and there was a
zone of deep membrane infoldings (ruffled border) surrounded by a clear
zone at the apical cell pole adjacent to the resorption surface of the
mineralized cartilage. The multinucleated cartilage‐resorbing cells of
the forming antler thus exhibited the typical histochemical and
morphological features of active mammalian osteoclasts. Low levels of
TRAP activity were also observed in hypertrophic chondrocytes; however,
the specificity and potential significance of this staining remain to be
elucidated

Harvard Citation style: Szuwart, T., Kierdorf, H., Kierdorf, U. and Clemen, G. (2002) Histochemical and ultrastructural studies of cartilage resorption and acid phosphatase activity during antler growth in fallow deer (Dama dama), Anatomical Record, 268(1), pp. 66-72. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.10135

APA Citation style: Szuwart, T., Kierdorf, H., Kierdorf, U., & Clemen, G. (2002). Histochemical and ultrastructural studies of cartilage resorption and acid phosphatase activity during antler growth in fallow deer (Dama dama). Anatomical Record. 268(1), 66-72. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.10135