VERSICAN GENE-EXPRESSION IN HUMAN ARTICULAR-CARTILAGE AND COMPARISON OF MESSENGER-RNA SPLICING VARIATION WITH AGGRECAN

The chondrocytes in human articular cartilage from subjects of all ages express mRNAs for both of the aggregating proteoglycans aggrecan and versican, although the level of expression of versican mRNA is much lower than that of aggrecan mRNA. Aggrecan shows alternative splicing of the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domain within its C-terminal globular region, but there is no evidence for a major difference in situ in the relative expression of this domain with age. At all ages studied from birth to the mature adult, a greater proportion of transcripts lacked the EGF domain. The relative proportions of the two transcripts did not change upon culture and passage of isolated chondrocytes. In contrast, the neighbouring complement regulatory protein (CRP)-like domain was predominantly expressed irrespective of age, but cell culture did result in variation of the splicing of this domain. Versican possesses two EGF-like domains and one CRP-like domain, but at all ages the three domains were predominantly present in all transcripts. This situation persisted upon culture and passage of the chondrocytes. Thus, unlike aggrecan, the versican expressed by human articular cartilage does not appear to undergo alternative splicing of its C-terminal globular region, either in cartilage in situ or in chondrocytes in culture.