Data for: NFATc1 marks articular cartilage progenitors and negatively determines articular chondrocyte differentiation

The origin and differentiation mechanism of articular chondrocytes remain poorly understood. Broadly, the difference in developmental mechanisms of articular and growth-plate cartilage is still less elucidated. Here, we identified that the nuclear factor of activated T-cells cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1) is a crucial regulator of articular, but not growth-plate, chondrocyte differentiation during development. At the early stage of mouse knee development (embryonic day 13.5), NFATc1-expressing cells were mainly located in the flanking region of the joint interzone. With development, NFATc1-expressing cells generated almost all articular chondrocytes, but not chondrocytes in limb growth-plate primordium. NFATc1-expressing cells displayed prominent capacities for colony formation and multipotent differentiation. Transcriptome analyses revealed a set of characteristic genes in NFATc1-enriched articular cartilage progenitors. Strikingly, the expression of NFATc1 was diminished with articular chondr..., ,关节软骨细胞（articular chondrocytes）的起源与分化机制迄今仍未得到充分阐明。广义而言，关节软骨与生长板软骨（growth-plate cartilage）的发育调控机制差异仍有待深入解析。本研究鉴定发现，活化T细胞核因子胞质1（NFATc1）是发育过程中调控关节软骨细胞（而非生长板软骨细胞）分化的关键因子。在小鼠膝关节发育早期（胚胎第13.5天），表达NFATc1的细胞主要定位于关节间区（joint interzone）的侧翼区域。随着发育进程，表达NFATc1的细胞几乎可分化为所有关节软骨细胞，但无法生成肢体生长板原基（limb growth-plate primordium）中的软骨细胞。表达NFATc1的细胞展现出显著的集落形成能力与多向分化潜能。转录组分析（transcriptome analyses）揭示了NFATc1富集的关节软骨前体细胞中一组特征性基因。值得注意的是，NFATc1的表达在关节软骨……，，