Low-density cultures of bovine chondrocytes: effects of scaffold material and culture system.

Chondrocytes were seeded on either agarose or polyglycolic acid (PGA) unwoven meshes at 10 million cells/ml of scaffold volume to evaluate the effect that these two biomaterials have on the low-density culture of chondrocytes in a rotating-wall bioreactor. For both static and bioreactor culture, agarose constructs contained more glycosaminoglycan than their PGA counterparts. However, the PGA constructs contained more collagen for both culture conditions when compared to agarose. For the low seeding density of this study, PGA constructs cultured in the bioreactor did not outperform static cultures when comparing collagen content after 8 weeks. The mechanical properties of the PGA constructs also did not improve with culture time. Similar results were observed with the agarose culture, though both static- and bioreactor-culture agarose constructs exhibited increases in aggregate modulus at the end of the culture period. As in PGA culture, chondrocytes cultured in agarose may require a higher density to reap the benefits of the bioreactor environment.