The Fifth European Growth Plate Working Group Symposium

The regulation of longitudinal bone growth at the growth plate occurs through the tightly controlled interaction of circulating systemic hormones and locally produced peptide growth factors, the net result of which is to trigger changes in gene expression by growth plate chondrocytes. These molecular events lead to carefully orchestrated alterations in chondrocyte size, extracellular matrix components, secreted enzymes and growth factors, and receptor expression. The result of these events is calcification of the matrix, chondrocyte apoptosis, and the completion of endochondral bone formation. Although over the past decade advances in molecular and cellular biology have increased our understanding of skeletal biology and the process of endochondral ossification, many of the signaling pathways and their interactions remain poorly understood in the growth plate. The European Growth Plate Working Group (EUROGROP) was established in 2000 with the aim to bring together groups of basic and clinical researchers from Europe with an interest in the normal biology and pathophysiology of the growth plate. The 5th EUROGROP Symposium, held in Lyon, France, as a satellite symposium to the 7th Joint Meeting of ESPE/LWPES 2005, enabled researchers, coming from all parts of the world, including South America, Australia, Asia and Japan, to discuss their ongoing studies and exchange technical information. Topics ranged from the search for the molecular mechanisms of growth plate senescence to IGF-I and sugar metabolism in skeletal growth centers, while techniques discussed included microarray analysis of rat growth plates and the use of human mesenchymal stem cells as a model of chondrocyte differentiation.