[Morphology and growth behavior of synovial cells in monolayer culture]

Synovial fluid cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, peripheral arthritis in ankylosing spondylitis, dialysis arthropathy, osteoarthrosis, and joint disorders due to acute trauma were grown in monolayer cultures and examined by light and electron microscopy at arbitrarily chosen times and in various subcultures. The cultivated cells from these sources were compared with the cells of synovial tissue (cultured under the same conditions) from patients with osteoarthrosis and traumatized joints. Our results are not in agreement with those of most other authors. In contrast to many authors, we could not find any differences between the cultures from synovial fluid and the cultures from synovial tissue: the same cell types were observed with a slight quantitative difference in both cultures. Furthermore, no morphological features (except an abundance of filopodia of rheumatoid polykaryocytes) which would be characteristic of the rheumatoid synovial cells could be determined. Due to our experiments the synovial fluid seems to be more advantageous than synovial tissue for cell culture studies of different types of arthritis. This may be attributed to the following factors: a) the easy accessibility of synovial-fluid samples by ambulant aspiration from affected joints; b) the possibility of repeating this procedure frequently without any essential danger for the patient; c) the maintainability of synovial fluid (when chilled to 4 degrees C) up to 2-4 days without cessation of the growth ability of the cells under normal culture conditions. Apparently, synovial fluid represents an appropriate medium for synovial cells to survive in vitro.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)