Cultivation of Human Articular Chondrocytes for Autologous Transplantation

Autologous transplantation of chondrocytes (ATC) cultured ex vivo is an opdon for treating cartilage defects (1). The efficacy of transplantation depends on cell number and production of appropriate extracellular matrix. The use of bovine serum as a cell culture medium supplement represents a risk to patients (2), therefore patient’s autologous serum is applied. Normafiy 15% of autologous serum is added to the culture media and in washing solutions 20% of autologous serum are used for inactivation of trypsin (3). On average, 100–150 ml of autologous serum is required to prepare 5 × 106 to 107 autologous chondrocytes for re-implantation. Our experience shows that sufficient number of cells can be isolated from a 5-day-old biopsy. This enables us to prepare patient’s autologous serum in the mean- time. Primary culture cells, isolated from cartilage biopsy, can also survive in serum free conditions for up to five days. During further cultivation, the use of autologous serum may be problematic due to insufficient amounts or contamination. The aim of our study was to determine the effects of media containing different types and percentages of serum or serum supplements on growth and survival of chondrocytes that have previously been adapted to culture medium supplemented with 15% autologous serum.