Culturing encapsulated chondrocytes under reduced oxygen partial pressure to produce cartilage implants

摘要

A process is provided for the production of a human cartilage implant from chondrocytes cultured in vitro, which come as close as possible to the original with respect to their biochemical composition and biomechanical properties. Up to 20% vol. of human serum is used as medium addition in the process. The chondrocytes can be kept in monolayer culture until the 12^th passage in order firstly to be re-differentiated, incubated under a reduced oxygen partial pressure, and subsequently stimulated to form a three-dimensional cartilage tissue due to aggregation under an oxygen partial pressure of 21%. In an embodiment, chondrocytes in alginate beads are cultured in a nutrient solution, which may contain human serum and one or more chondrogenic growth factors, under an oxygen partial pressure of less than 20 volume %, isolated from the alginate beads by a treatment with a chelating agent, aggregated by centrifugation and cultured under an oxygen partial pressure of: −21 volume %.