Studies on hormonal regulation of the growth of the craniofacial skeleton: II. Effects of a glucocorticoid hormone on sulfate incorporation by neonatal condylar cartilage.

Condylar cartilage of neonatal mice served as an experimental model to study the early in vivo effects of a single dose of a fluorinated synthetic analogue of cortisol on sulfate incorporation and matrix metachromasia. Twenty-four hours after the administration of triamcinolone hexacetonide condyles incorporated significantly less 35SO4, a feature that followed a dose-response relationship. Dexamethasone, another fluorinated synthetic analogue of cortisol, evoked a similar effect, as did triamcinolone. On the other hand, corticosterone, the natural glucocorticoid in rodents, induced a markedly milder effect, whereas hydrocortisone lacked it altogether. Progesterone, a nonglucocorticoid steroid hormone, induced a reverse effect as it was found to increase 35SO4 incorporation into condylar cartilage. The hormonal inhibitory effect upon 35SO4 incorporation persisted, for the most part, for 2 days, and thereafter the sulfation process appeared to have returned to normal values. Of interest was the finding that the latter response was not accompanied by distinct changes in the degree of matrix metachromasia when measured at the chrondroblastic zone. It, therefore, seems possible, though not as yet proved, that concomitant with the transient inhibitory effects on 35SO4 incorporation, the hormone also induced changes in the degradative processes within the cartilage matrix.