TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schwab, Andrea
A1  - Meeuwsen, Annick
A1  - Ehlicke, Franziska
A1  - Hansmann, Jan
A1  - Mulder, Lars
A1  - Smits, Anthal
A1  - Walles, Heike
A1  - Kock, Linda
T1  - Ex vivo culture platform for assessment of cartilage repair treatment strategies
T2  - ALTEX - Alternatives to animal experimentation
N2  - There is a great need for valuable ex vivo models that allow for assessment of cartilage repair strategies to reduce the high number of animal experiments. In this paper we present three studies with our novel ex vivo osteochondral culture platform. It consists of two separated media compartments for cartilage and bone, which better represents the in vivo situation and enables supply of factors pecific to the different needs of bone and cartilage. We investigated whether separation of the cartilage and bone compartments and/or culture media results in the maintenance of viability, structural and functional properties of cartilage tissue. Next, we valuated for how long we can preserve cartilage matrix stability of osteochondral explants during long-term culture over 84 days. Finally, we determined the optimal defect size that does not show spontaneous self-healing in this culture system. It was demonstrated that separated compartments for cartilage and bone in combination with tissue-specific medium allow for long-term culture of osteochondral explants while maintaining cartilage viability, atrix tissue content, structure and mechanical properties for at least 56 days. Furthermore, we could create critical size cartilage defects of different sizes in the model. The osteochondral model represents a valuable preclinical ex vivo tool for studying clinically relevant cartilage therapies, such as cartilage biomaterials, for their regenerative potential, for evaluation of drug and cell therapies, or to study mechanisms of cartilage regeneration. It will undoubtedly reduce the number of animals needed for in vivotesting.
KW  - ex vivo model
KW  - osteochondral biopsy
KW  - cartilage repair
KW  - critical size defect
KW  - replacement
Y1  - 2017
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/18166
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-181665
VL  - 34
IS  - 2
ER  -