Detail

Keywords

Animal models; Bone Marrow Cells; Cartilage, Articular; Cell Hypoxia; Disease modeling; Galectins; Histology; Joint Diseases; Molecular Biology; Molecular Imaging; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Musculoskeletal tumors; Organoids; Phytochemicals; Primary Cell Culture; Secretory Vesicles; Spheroids, Cellular

Research group(s)

• Karl Chiari Lab for Orthopaedic Biology
  Research Area: The overall goal is to elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying orthopaedic diseases and to develop novel prevention and therapy strategies.
  Members:
  Stefan Tögel
  Katharina Pichler

Research interests

My main research focus is to understand the molecular mechanisms in different musculoskeletal diseases. In particular, we investigate to which extent galectins (a large family of b-galactoside-binding proteins) play a role in osteoarthritis development and progression.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

The methods used in our lab reach from molecular cell biology, imaging, cell culture to tissue engineering. In particular, we have expertise in primary cell culture from joint tissues, process for histology and immunohistochemistry, yield cells for FACS-analysis and cell extracts for mRNA and protein isolation to perform RT-qPCRs and Western blots. Addiotnally, with our imaging systems we are able to explore cell migration, cell invasion, cell proliferation, cell growth, cell morphology, fluorescent labelled antigens and florescent labelled cell-cell interactions,

Selected publications

1. Pichler, K.M. et al. (2020) ‘The Dysregulated Galectin Network Activates NF-κB to Induce Disease Markers and Matrix Degeneration in 3D Pellet Cultures of Osteoarthritic Chondrocytes’, Calcified Tissue International, 108(3), pp. 377–390. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-020-00774-4.
2. Pichler, K.M. et al. (2021) ‘Galectin network in osteoarthritis: galectin-4 programs a pathogenic signature of gene and effector expression in human chondrocytes in vitro’, Histochemistry and Cell Biology, 157(2), pp. 139–151. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00418-021-02053-1.
3. Fuehrer, J. et al. (2021) ‘N‐Glycan profiling of chondrocytes and fibroblast‐like synoviocytes: Towards functional glycomics in osteoarthritis’, PROTEOMICS – Clinical Applications, 15(2–3). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/prca.202000057.
4. Elshamly, M. et al. (2019) ‘Galectins‐1 and ‐3 in Human Intervertebral Disc Degeneration: Non‐Uniform Distribution Profiles and Activation of Disease Markers Involving NF‐κB by Galectin‐1’, Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 37(10), pp. 2204–2216. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/jor.24351.
5. Kinslechner, K. et al. (2019) ‘Loss of SR-BI Down-Regulates MITF and Suppresses Extracellular Vesicle Release in Human Melanoma’, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 20(5), p. 1063. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20051063.