Rapid isolation of intact, viable fetal cartilage models

A rapid procedure is described for the isolation of viable, intact, femoral cartilage models (humeri and femora) obtained from pregnant rats on the 18th day of gestation. Viability of these models is demonstrated in an in vitro system where the incorporation of 35S-sulfate was linear with time of incubation and with numbers of cartilage models utilized. Treatment of cartilage models with ice-cold trichloroacetic acid and a boiling water bath prior to incubation with radiolabel, reduced the amount of radioactivity incorporated to 1.3% of that observed for models incubated by routine procedures. Furthermore, digestion of cartilage model homogenates with protease yielded a supernatant from which 51% to 57% of the radioactivity was precipitated as GAG. This method may also be used to isolate fetal cartilage models as early as the 16th day of gestation. with this system, specific biochemical parameters of mammalian fetal chondrogenesis may be surveyed in normally and abnormally developing fetal cartilage free of surrounding soft tissue.