growing proliferating chondrocytes in the presence of
ascorbic acid 2 . We have used this system to study w x
changes in gene expression which may drive chondrocytes
towards terminal differentiation. In recent
years the technique of differential display has proved
immensely popular as a means of detecting and
cloning differentially expressed genes 3–5 . Re- w x
cently, a simple method for separating fragments
generated by non-radioactive differential display on
agarose gels was described 6 . This adaption in- w x
volved the reverse transcription of poly Aq RNA
from different sample tissues using random hexamers,
followed by PCR amplification of cDNA fragments
using two internal 10-mer arbitrary primers.
PCR products were compared by agarose gel electrophoresis
and bands representing differences in gene
expression isolated from the gel and cloned directly.