growth, and maintenance of skeletal tissues. However, the effect of FGF9, a recently identified member of the FGF family, on human chondrocytes is not well known. Recently, elevated levels of FGF9 have been detected in the cartilaginous formation and synovial fluid of patients affected with primary synovial chondromatosis. Synoviocytes from these patients have been discovered to produce FGF9 in...

Management of injuries to the articular cartilage is complex and challenging; it becomes especially problematic in weight-bearing joints such as the hip. Several causes of articular cartilage damage have been described, including trauma, labral tears, and femoroacetabular impingement, among others. Because articular cartilage has little capacity for healing, nonsurgical management options are l...

Postoperative rehabilitation programs following articular cartilage repair procedures will vary greatly among patients and need to be individualized based on the nature of the lesion, the unique characteristics of the patient, and the type and detail of each surgical procedure. These programs are based on knowledge of the basic science, anatomy, and biomechanics of articular cartilage as well a...

Tissue engineering is a new biotechnological field that has emerged recently, providing an alternative to the treatment of damages and defects of human tissues. Amongst the most researched tissues is cartilage. In this study, the general characteristics of chondrocytes derived from three different sources in the body: articular, auricular and nasal septum cartilage, were investigated, looking b...

INTRODUCTION: Articular chondrocytes exhibit an extensive hyaluronan (HA) and proteoglycan-rich pericellular matrix that is tethered to the cell surface via interactions with the HA receptor, CD44. One hallmark of osteoarthritic cartilage is the loss of proteoglycan from the extracellular matrix. This may represents the disruption of proteoglycan/HA-chondrocyte interactions. One of our experime...

The viability of transplanted articular cartilage is one of the determinants of outcome following the transplantation of osteochondral allografts. Disappointing results from cryopreservation have led to the practice of fresh transplantation of articular segments, especially for posttraumatic defects. To date, no studies have demonstrated in vitro viability rates for refrigerated human cartilage...

Heterozgyous spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (sedc/+) mice expressing a missense mutation in col2a1 exhibit a normal skeletal morphology but early-onset osteoarthritis (OA). We have recently examined knee articular cartilage obtained from homozygous (sedc/sedc) mice, which express a Stickler-like phenotype including dwarfism. We examined sedc/sedc mice at various levels to better underst...

BACKGROUND Acute cartilage injuries induce cell death and are associated with an increased incidence of osteoarthritis development later in life. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of posttraumatic cyclic compressive loading on chondrocyte viability and apoptosis in porcine articular cartilage plugs. HYPOTHESIS Compressive loading of acutely injured cartilage can mainta...

The culture of chondrocytes is one of the most powerful tool for exploring the intracellular and molecular features of chondrocyte differentiation and activation. However, chondrocytes tend to dedifferentiate to fibroblasts when they are subcultured, which is a major problem. This chapter describes several protocols for culturing chondrocytes of different anatomical origins (articular and costa...

PURPOSE To evaluate the effect of autologous human serum (AHS) versus pooled human serum (PHS) versus foetal bovine serum (FBS) for growth of articular chondrocytes and formation of chondrocytefibrin constructs. METHODS Experiments with monolayer culture expansion of human articular chondrocytes were performed using basic culture media supplemented with 10% AHS, PHS, or FBS. Growth kinetics a...