Culturing Osteochondral Explants Under Rotary Shaking or After Removing Bone Marrow Elements Increases Explant...

Area of Science:

• Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
• Biomaterials science
• Cellular biology

Background:

• Osteochondral allografts (OCAs) face viability challenges in deep zones, potentially compromising graft integrity and increasing failure risk.
• Nutritional deficits from uneven media distribution or bone marrow interference are suspected causes of reduced cellular viability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of rotary shaker culturing and bone marrow element removal on osteochondral explant cellular viability.
• To determine if these methods can mitigate viability loss in deep graft zones.

Main Methods:

• Bovine osteochondral explants were stored for 28 days under static, rotary shaker, or bone marrow-removed (Waterpik) conditions.
• Chondrocyte viability was assessed using live/dead staining across all tissue zones.
• Subchondral bone apoptosis was evaluated using TUNEL staining.

Main Results:

• Both rotary shaking (64.2%) and bone marrow removal (65.6%) significantly increased overall chondrocyte viability compared to static storage (49.8%).
• These methods markedly improved viability in the middle and deep zones of the grafts.
• Apoptosis in subchondral bone was significantly reduced in the shaker (56.7%) and Waterpik (51.4%) groups compared to static controls (88.0%).

Conclusions:

• Rotary shaking and bone marrow removal during storage enhance chondrocyte viability in the critical middle and deep zones of osteochondral allografts.
• Improved nutrient delivery to grafts via these methods can enhance graft quality and potentially improve clinical outcomes of OCA transplantation.
• These techniques offer a promising strategy to improve the viability and integrity of stored osteochondral grafts.