Culture and characterization of juvenile rabbit tenocytes.

The culture of rabbit tenocytes could be a useful model in the study of the physiopathology and pharmacotoxicology of tendons. This work was undertaken to examine the in vitro behavior of tenocytes form juvenile rabbit Achilles tendons. We report observations of the morphological and biological characteristics of primary culture and subsequent passages of rabbit tendon cells cultured in monolayer. Data obtained by electron microscopy and growth curves were complementary. After 36 passages, the generation time of tenocytes did not change and no sign of senescence could be seen. Primary culture and the first passages retained the expression of tenocyte differentiated functions, synthesis of type I collagen and decorin. Cell growth behavior was not modified upon passaging. However, when subcultured, tenocytes displayed a modulated phenotype.