The mandibular condylar growth center: separation and characterization of the cellular elements.

The developing mandibular condylar growth center consists of a number of histologically distinct cell types. There is an increase in cell volume that takes place from the condylar surface layer through the center of ossification, resulting in a disorganized, irregular cellular pattern. Consequently, the isolation and separation of the different cells from this tissue is difficult using standard methodologies. Countercurrent centrifugal elutriation, whereby cells are separated on the basis of size, was applied to bovine mandibular condylar growth center cells. The cell volume, alkaline phosphatase content, proteoglycan synthesis, and type X collagen synthesis all showed a positive correlation with increasing cell size. The largest cells had characteristics that are consistent with hypertrophic chondrocytes; the smallest cells, on the other hand, had many fibroblastic characteristics.