TY - JOUR TI - Secondary ossification center induces and protects growth plate structure AU - Xie, Meng AU - Gol'din, Pavel AU - Herdina, Anna Nele AU - Estefa, Jordi AU - Medvedeva, Ekaterina V AU - Li, Lei AU - Newton, Phillip T AU - Kotova, Svetlana AU - Shavkuta, Boris AU - Saxena, Aditya AU - Shumate, Lauren T AU - Metscher, Brian D AU - Großschmidt, Karl AU - Nishimori, Shigeki AU - Akovantseva, Anastasia AU - Usanova, Anna P AU - Kurenkova, Anastasiia D AU - Kumar, Anoop AU - Arregui, Irene Linares AU - Tafforeau, Paul AU - Fried, Kaj AU - Carlström, Mattias AU - Simon, András AU - Gasser, Christian AU - Kronenberg, Henry M AU - Bastepe, Murat AU - Cooper, Kimberly L AU - Timashev, Peter AU - Sanchez, Sophie AU - Adameyko, Igor AU - Eriksson, Anders AU - Chagin, Andrei S A2 - Rosen, Clifford J A2 - Cao, Xu A2 - Vortkamp, Andrea VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/10/16 SP - e55212 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e55212 DO - 10.7554/eLife.55212 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.55212 AB - Growth plate and articular cartilage constitute a single anatomical entity early in development but later separate into two distinct structures by the secondary ossification center (SOC). The reason for such separation remains unknown. We found that evolutionarily SOC appears in animals conquering the land - amniotes. Analysis of the ossification pattern in mammals with specialized extremities (whales, bats, jerboa) revealed that SOC development correlates with the extent of mechanical loads. Mathematical modeling revealed that SOC reduces mechanical stress within the growth plate. Functional experiments revealed the high vulnerability of hypertrophic chondrocytes to mechanical stress and showed that SOC protects these cells from apoptosis caused by extensive loading. Atomic force microscopy showed that hypertrophic chondrocytes are the least mechanically stiff cells within the growth plate. Altogether, these findings suggest that SOC has evolved to protect the hypertrophic chondrocytes from the high mechanical stress encountered in the terrestrial environment. KW - growth plate KW - chondrocytes KW - whale KW - bat KW - jerboa KW - secondary ossification JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -