Chondrogenesis, the differentiation of MSCs into chondrocytes, is crucial required for skeletal development and maturation, since the cartilage anlage is the model for bone formation. Cartilage development thus includes the differentiation of MSCs into chondrocytes, followed by their maturation, and eventual their hypertrophy and death (4) . Differential gene expression profiling has been widely performed to identify and characterize candidate genes that play potentially important roles in particular biological process (5) .