| It is considered that healthy adult cartilage has little or no capacity for renewal, and that chondrocytes maintain a stable resting phenotype and resist proliferation and differentiation throughout life. Recently we found that cell turnover in lung cartilage is possible and that nestin-positive cells may have a role in it. In this paper, we report additional findings about chondrocyte renewal in lung cartilage. Lung specimens from CD1 mice at the age of 2, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months were fixed in 10% neutral-buffered formalin and paraffin-embedded. Nestin expression was examined by an immunohistochemical peroxidase-based method. We found nestin-positive cells inside of cartilage islets and cells in division very close from them. Our findings indicate that... |
