Cathepsin B Imaging to Predict Quality of Engineered Cartilage.

Authors :: Yhee JY
Kim YJ
Ryu JH
Yoon HY
Chang H
Park JH
Lee H
Jang HS
Jeong U
Kim K
Kang SW
Source :: Macromolecular bioscience [Macromol Biosci] 2015 Sep; Vol. 15 (9), pp. 1224-32. Date of Electronic Publication: 2015 Jul 14.
Publication Year :: 2015
Abstract: Cathepsin B (CB)-specific molecular imaging probe is applied to monitor the changes of CB expression in 3D cultured chondrocytes during the chondrogenesis. The probe is synthesized with a CB-cleavable peptide linked to a near infrared fluorescence (NIRF) dye and a dark quencher, which can recover the NIRF signal in the presence of CB enzyme. The CB activities in two different sets of chondrocytes are comparatively analyzed. The chondrocytes with higher CB activity show more extensive area of chondrogenesis that CB molecular imaging directly reflects the chondrogenic potency of the cells. The CB probe is expected to provide a reliable prediction for the quality of engineered cartilage by visualizing the activity of the relevant enzyme in chondrocytes.<br /> (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)