THE GROWTH OF CHONDROCYTES USING GELFOAM(R) AS A BIODEGRADABLE SCAFFOLD

Successful articular cartilage resurfacing must overcome several probl ems: the implant must easily fit the defect, it must be stable within the defect before full incorporation of repair tissue has occurred, an d the reparative tissue must closely approximate the structure of norm al hyaline cartilage. To this end, several natural and synthetic compo nents have been used, both in vivo and in vitro, to provide a scaffold . These include isolated chondrocyte allografts, intact cartilage allo grafts, periossteal grafts, reconstructed collagen sponges, hydrogels and carbon fibres. However, promising results have been reported using three dimensional scaffolds in culture with isolated chondrocytes wit h subsequent implantation. This preliminary in vitro study utilizes Ge lfoam(R) (a purified gelatin sponge) as such a scaffold. The biocompat ibility of Gelfoam with both chondrocytes and osteoblast cells was fir st confirmed. The ability of chondrocytes to replicate and differentia te within Gelfoam scaffolds was assessed biochemically by measurement of the DNA content and glycosaminoglycans (GAG) production over 25 day s in culture. The distribution of the cartilagenous matrix produced wa s observed by light microscopy, and the constituents of this matrix we re assessed using specific antibodies and immunolocalization.