Recent advances in cell culture and tissue engineering permit the successful treatment of deep articular defects with autologous chondrocyte transplantation. While chondrocyte culturing from articular cartilage is commonplace, in vitro growth of chondrocytes from temporomandibular joint fibrocartilage has not been defined. Likewise, the concept of autologous chondrocyte transplantation has not been applied to the temporomandibular joint. Since fibrocartilage differs structurally and functionally from articular cartilage, an effective culturing method for this tissue is essential as well. The ultimate goal of this project is to enable the use of autologous temporomandibular joint chondrocyte transplantation for the regeneration of damaged or missing components of the joint. The aim of this pilot study is to develop an effective cell culturing technique for chondrocytes harvested from the temporomandibular joint disc of dogs. Cartilage of the temporomandibular joint disc of drug-free mongrel dogs was dissected, dissociated, and centrifuged for chondrocyte collection. Blood specimen was collected from the same animal to produce the autologous serum. Chondrocytes were then dispersed in 24-well plates and incubated in one of four media, DMEM (Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium), Ham's F-12, DMEM/F-12, or Iscove's MDM(modified Dulbecco's medium). Each medium was also mixed with either 10% fetal bovine serum or 10% autologous serum. Temporomandibular joint disc chondrocytic proliferation was tested in all the culture media with sera on the fifth day. The initial plating count was held constant throughout at 1 x 10(4) cells/well and eight samples were evaluated in each culture. The results demonstrated that fetal bovine serum worked much better than autologous serum in all evaluated media and that DMEM/F-12 mixed with 10% fetal bovine serum was the most optimal culture condition for expansion of temporomandibular joint disc chondrocytes.
Animals ; Cartilage ; Cartilage, Articular ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Chondrocytes ; Culture Media ; Dogs ; Fibrocartilage ; Joints ; Pilot Projects ; Regeneration ; Temporomandibular Joint Disc* ; Temporomandibular Joint* ; Tissue Engineering