Flow cytometric analysis of human chondrocytes cultured in a new medium for autologous therapie and tissue engineering cartilage

Autologous Cell Implantation (ACI) is a currently practiced cell-based therapy to repair cartilage defects. Several strategies have been explored to expand the number of chondrocytes ex vivo. However, these methods are unable to provide sufficient quantity of chondrocytes with unaltered phenotype. To maintain the original phenotype in monolayer culture and to expand cell proliferation, primary human chondrocytes isolated by enzymatic digestion were cultured in a DMEM medium supplemented with Ac-Gly-Gly-OH dipeptide The aim of our study was to investigate and compare by flow cytometry the viability and the cell proliferation of chondrocytes obtained by culture in medium containing the dipeptide with the cells cultured in a classical system. The results we obtained provide that proliferation and viability of chondrocytes cultured in presence of DMEM medium containing Ac-Gly-Gly-OH were higher and thus can be used in the culture of chondrocytes devoted to reconstructive clinical procedures.