s / Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 24 (2016) S63eS534 S176 Methods: Cartilage specimens were isolated from healthy patients undergoing ankle replacement surgery and OA patients undergoing total knee replacement surgery and graded by the OARSI grading method, based on Alcian blue and Safranin O staining. Healthy (HL), relative healthy (RH) and osteoarthritic (OA) chondrocytes were isolated from ca...

Cell therapies for articular cartilage defects rely on expanded chondrocytes. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) represent an alternative cell source should their hypertrophic differentiation pathway be prevented. Possible cellular instruction between human articular chondrocytes (HAC) and human bone marrow MSC was investigated in micromass pellets. HAC and MSC were mixed in different percentages or ...

INTRODUCTION Previous studies have indicated that transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) signaling has a critical role in cartilage homeostasis and repair, yet the mechanisms of TGF-β's chondroprotective effects are not known. Our objective in this study was to identify downstream targets of TGF-β that could act to maintain biochemical and biomechanical properties of cartilage. METHODS Tibial j...

In line with the recommendations of an ECVAM workshop on reproductive toxicity, held in 1994 (1), ECVAM initiated and funded a validation study of three in vitro embryotoxicity tests. In two of these assays, pregnant laboratory animals are used to obtain embryonic tissue — either primary embryonic cells in the mouse micromass (MM) test or embryos in the rat whole embryo culture (WEC) test. In c...