Effects of corticosterone on the metabolic activity of cultured chicken chondrocytes

BACKGROUND: Corticosterone is one of the most crucial glucocorticoids (GCs) in poultry. Our previous study shows that corticosterone can retard the longitudinal growth of bones by depressing the proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes in broilers. The present study was designed to investigate whether corticosterone affect the development of chondrocytes and the synthesis of collagen in vitro. The chondrocytes were isolated from proximal tibial growth plates of 6-week-old broiler chickens and cultured with different doses of corticosterone for 48 h. Then the cell viability, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and the expression of parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) and type X collagen (Col X) were detected. RESULTS: At 10(−9)-10(−6) M concentration, corticosterone significantly inhibited the viability and differentiation of chondrocytes, as indicated by decreases in ALP and type X collagen expression. Conversely, there was completely opposite effect at 10(−10) M. In addition, the expression of PTHrP was significantly downregulated at 10(−6) M and 10(−8) M, and was upregulated at 10(−10) M. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that corticosterone regulated chicken chondrocytes performance depending on its concentration with high concentrations inhibiting the viability and differentiation of chondrocytes and light concentrations promoting them, and these roles of corticosterone may be in part mediated through PTHrP. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-015-0398-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.