Tissue engineering: chondrocyte culture on type 1 collagen support. Cytohistological and immunohistochemical study.

The scope of our study is to evaluate the possibility of cultivating and expanding human chondrocytes and seeding them on pure equine type I collagen support. Our results show that human articular cartilaginous cells can multiply and grow on type I collagen substrate with production of extracellular matrix. This type of chondrocyte culture on a support can be used for repairing cartilaginous lesions since they show a correct morphology (evaluated by cytological and histological methods) and a suitable differentiation and phenotype as shown by Alcian PAS staining to indicate the presence of mucopolysaccharides, and immunohistochemical methods to identify collagen II. We believe that these chondrocyte cultures on this biomaterial can be used for repairing cartilaginous lesions with improvement of surgical technique; the support allows adhesion of the chondrocytes to the cartilaginous lesion and a mallebility that favours optimum spatial adaptation. 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd