Primary culture of chondrocytes after collagenase IA or II treatment of articular cartilage from elderly patients undergoing arthroplasty

Background: Joint replacement surgery provides articular cartilage samples for chondrocyte isolation. To our knowledge, the effect of the collagenase type on releasing of chondrocytes from the extracellular matrix of cartilage is not reported. Objectives: To determine whether cartilage digested with collagenase IA yielded more chondrocytes than that digested with collagenase II and determine whether chondrocytes isolated with collagenase IA could be cultured in vitro. Methods: Cartilage slices collected from 18 elderly patients who received joint replacement surgery (16 hips, 2 knees) were digested sequentially with 0.4% pronase E and 0.02% collagenase IA, or with 0.15% collagenase II alone, or sequentially with 0.4% pronase E and 0.02% collagenase II. We compared cell yield from each method. Cell viability by the most effective method was calculated and plotted. The morphology of cultured monolayer chondrocytes was recorded with a light microscope. Results: = 0.018). The average chondrocyte viability could reach 84% ± 8% (n = 11). Light microscopic images showed typical chondrocyte morphology in monolayer cultures. Conclusion: Sequential digestion of human articular cartilage with pronase E and collagenase IA was more effective than collagenase II alone or collagenase II combined with pronase E for releasing chondrocytes from extracellular matrix of cartilage. Chondrocytes isolated with this method could be maintained in monolayer cultures for at least 2 passages with unaltered morphology.