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

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:
  Katharina Pichler
  Stefan Tögel

Research interests

My main research focus is to understand the molecular mechanisms in different musculoskeletal diseases, as the knee, hip, spine and shoulder. In particular, I 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, I 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 I'm able to explore cell migration, cell invasion, cell proliferation, cell growth, cell morphology, fluorescent labelled antigens and fulorescent 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.