Tissue engineering. Part A
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When serially passaged in standard monolayer culture to expand cell number, articular chondrocytes lose their phenotype. This results in the formation of fibrocartilage when they are used clinically, thus limiting their use for cartilage repair therapies. Identifying a way to redifferentiate these cells in vitro is critical if they are to be used successfully. Transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) family members are known to be crucial for regulating differentiation of fetal limb mesenchymal cells and mesenchymal stromal cells to chondrocytes. As passaged chondrocytes acquire a progenitor-like phenotype, the hypothesis of this study was that TGFβ supplementation will stimulate chondrocyte redifferentiation in vitro in serum-free three-dimensional (3D) culture. ⋯ This study suggests that passaged human chondrocytes can be used to bioengineer a continuous layer of articular cartilage-like tissue in vitro scaffold free. Further study is required to evaluate their ability to repair cartilage defects in vivo.