Isolation and Identification of Cartilage-derived Factor (CDF) and its Precursor.

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Besides known hormones and growth factors, some functional matrix components have been suspected to play important roles in the control of chondrogenic expression. Here I report the structure and bioactivity of 25 kDa glycoprotein (chondromodulin-I, ChM-I) as a tissue-specific functional matrix component identified and cloned for the fist time. ChM-I purified from fetal bovine cartilage markedly stimulated DNA synthesis of cultured growth-plate chondrocytes in the presence of basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF). Bovine ChM-I cDNA revealed that mature Ch-M-I consists of 121 amino acids with three possible glycosylation sites and is coded as the C-terminal part of a larger precursor. On northern blot analysis, expression of ChM-I mRNA was observed only in cartilage.