The aim of this study was to identify the contribution of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), insulin-like growth factor (IGF), and hedgehog (HH) signaling toward cell proliferation during chondrogenesis and investigate whether a further mitogenic stimulation is possible and promising.  Early BMP4, IGF-1, or FGF18 treatment neither prevented early cell loss nor allowed further mitogenic stimulation. 
THERM