SPATIAL TRANSCRIPTOMICS REVEAL UNIQUE MOLECULAR FINGERPRINTS OF CHONDROGENESIS DURING EMBRYONIC LIMB DEVELOPMENT

Purpose: Cartilage has a poor self-healing capacity. Thus, it is highly challenging to treat the cartilage-associated diseases such as osteoarthritis. In this regard, tissue engineering and stem cell therapy may offer valuable means to facilitate cartilage regeneration. Nevertheless, it is challenging to induce chondrogenesis of stem cells without off-target differentiation, largely due to complicated signaling pathways, gene regulatory networks, and cell-cell interactions involved in this process.