C-28/I2 and T/C-28a2 chondrocytes as well as human primary articular chondrocytes express sex hormone and insulin receptors--Useful cells in study of cartilage metabolism.

Sex hormones and insulin have been implicated in articular cartilage metabolism. To supplement previous findings on the regulation of matrix synthesis with 17ß-estradiol and insulin and to find a possible model to study cartilage metabolism in vitro, we evaluated the expression of estrogen receptors α and ß (ERα, ERß), androgen receptor (AR) and insulin receptor (IR), in immortalized C-28/I2 and T/C-28a2 chondrocytes and in human primary articular cartilage cells. Chondrocytes were treated with increasing concentrations of 17ß-estradiol, dihydrotestosterone or insulin and analyzed by means of RT-PCR and Western blotting. Both cell lines as well as human articular chondrocytes expressed ER α and ß, AR and IR at mRNA and protein levels. In immortalized C-28/I2 chondrocytes, we showed that increasing concentrations of 17ß-estradiol diminished the 95kDa band of IR. Since 17ß-estradiol suppresses insulin-induced proline incorporation and type II collagen synthesis, as we have previously demonstrated, our findings give the first clue that 17ß-estradiol may have negative effects on cartilage anabolism triggered by insulin during hormonal imbalance. Compared to chondrocytes cultured without hormones, immunostaining for ERα/ß, AR and IR was decreased in both cell lines after incubation of cells with the receptor-specific hormones. It can be assumed that C-28/I2 and T/C-28a2 chondrocytes interact with the respective hormones. Our findings provide a reproducible model for investigating sex hormone and insulin receptors, which are present in low concentrations in articular chondrocytes, in the tissue-specific context of cartilage metabolism.

[Death on a sauna stove]. / Verbrennung auf dem Saunaofen.

A 67-year-old woman noticed a strange smell from the cellar of her house. When she followed the smell, she found her 64-year-old husband with the face and upper part of his body lying on the stove of the private sauna. He was dead when the emergency doctor arrived. The autopsy revealed upper gastrointestinal bleeding from mucosal lesions in the esophagus with an agonal fall on the sauna stove as the cause of death. In addition, there were signs of chronic alcohol and drug abuse.

[Atypical injury pattern of a pedestrian run over by an unimog in the epigastric region]. / Atypisches Verletzungsbild nach tödlicher Uberrollung durch einen Unimog im Oberbauchbereich.

Strongly intoxicated, a 37-year-old man fell in front of the right back wheel of an emergency vehicle (MB Unimog) and was run over according to eye witnesses. He died in hospital shortly afterwards. The autopsy revealed that he bled to death from a traumatic liver rupture (bursting of the right hepatic lobe and severing of a piece of tissue measuring 17 x 8 x 4 cm). There were no injuries classicaly seen in victims run over by a car. The atypical injury findings in this case are due to the special features of the accident vehicle: The Unimog (an all-wheel vehicle with a fixed rear axle and flat coils) struck the right side of the body lying on the street with its rear wheel and was then lifted over the body by its fixed axle without touching the left side.