Formation of cartilage tissue in vitro

Articular cartilage is notoriously defective in its capacity for self-repair, making joints particularly sensitive to degenerative processes. However, methods are now available for the preparation of large numbers of differentiated chondrocytes from a small biopsy sample from any patient. The cells are amplified by proliferation as fibroblast-like cells that will re-express the cartilage phenotype when placed in suspension or gel culture. The chondrocytes can be collected from gel cultures after agarase treatment and reconstituted into cartilage tissue in pellet cultures. In addition, these chondrocytes can be suspended in an appropriate delivery vehicle and implanted into defect sites with a high reparative success rate in an animal model. Appropriate procedures can now be tested in appropriate patient populations.