Diffusion chamber cultures of muscle from patients with scoliosis

Explants from paraspinal muscles of patients with scoliosis were cultured in Millipore diffusion chambers placed in peritoneal cavities of mice. Three and four weeks of incubation produced a predominantly myogenic growth. Cell counts done on paraffin sections and on dissociated cells from the chambers showed that explants from the concavity of the spinal curvature grew better than those from the convexity. Since cells from injured muscles, when transplanted or cultured, are known to grow better than those from healthy control tissue, these findings support our previous morphologic observations that in idiopathic scoliosis concave muscles are more involved by the disease process. Secondary subculture of the chamber contents by conventional methods produced myotubes within one to two weeks. The relative ease of diffusion chamber muscle culture should make the method useful to laboratories that are not specifically equipped for tissue culture work.