A Novel Rat Tail Collagen Type-I Gel for the Cultivation of Human Articular Chondrocytes in Low Cell Density

Abstract

Collagen type-I matrix systems have gained growing importance as a cartilage repair device. However, most of the established matrix systems use collagen type-I of bovine origin seeded in high cell densities. Here we present a novel collagen type-I gel system made of rat tail collagen for the cultivation of human chondrocytes in low cell densities. Rat tail collagen type-I gel (CaReS, Arthro Kinetics, Esslingen, Germany) was seeded with human passage 2 chondrocytes in different cell densities to evaluate the optimal cell number. In vitro, the proliferation factor of low density cultures was more than threefold higher compared with high density cultures. After 6 weeks of in vitro cultivation, freshly prepared chondrocytes with an initial cell density of 2x10(5) cells/mL showed a proliferation factor of 33. A cell density of 2x10(5) cells/mL was chosen for in vitro and in vivo cultivation using the common nude mouse model as an in vivo system. Chondrocytes stayed viable as a Live/Dead fluorescence assay and TUNEL staining revealed. During in vitro cultivation, passage 0 cells partly dedifferentiated morphologically. In vivo, passage 0 cells maintained the chondrocyte phenotype and demonstrated an increased synthesis of collagen type-II protein and gene expression compared to passage 2 cells. Passage 2 cells did not redifferentiate in vivo. Cultivating a cell-seeded collagen gel of bovine origin as a control (AtelocollagenTM, Koken, Tokyo, Japan) did not lead to superior results with regard to cell morphology, col-II protein production and col-II gene expression. With the CaReS collagen gel system the best quality of repair tissue was obtained by seeding freshly isolated chondrocytes.