Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13, 4433-4445; doi:10.3390/ijms13044433 OPEN ACCESS International Journal of Molecular Sciences ISSN 1422-0067 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms Article Expression of Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid (TRPV) Channels in Different Passages of Articular Chondrocytes Ismail M. Hdud 1, Abdelrafea A. El-Shafei 2, Paul Loughna 1, Richard Barrett-Jolley 3 and Ali Mobasheri 1,* 1 School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK; E-Mails:
[email protected] (I.M.H.);
[email protected] (P.L.) 2 Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt; E-Mail:
[email protected] 3 Department of Musculoskeletal Biology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, Merseyside L69 3GA, UK; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +44-115-951-6449; Fax: +44-115-951-6440. Received: 27 February 2012; in revised form: 12 March 2012 / Accepted: 26 March 2012 / Published: 10 April 2012 Abstract: Ion channels play important roles in chondrocyte mechanotransduction. The transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV) subfamily of ion channels consists of six members. TRPV1-4 are temperature sensitive calcium-permeable, relatively non-selective cation channels whereas TRPV5 and TRPV6 show high selectivity for calcium over other cations. In this study we investigated the effect of time in culture and passage number on the expression of TRPV4, TRPV5 and TRPV6 in articular chondrocytes isolated from equine metacarpophalangeal joints. Polyclonal antibodies raised against TRPV4, TRPV5 and TRPV6 were used to compare the expression of these channels in lysates from first expansion chondrocytes (P0) and cells from passages 1–3 (P1, P2 and P3) by western blotting.