15502-m-pleumeekers

Figure 4. Stability of cartilage constructs in vitro and in vivo . (A) Relative gene expression levels of COL10 , ALP and MMP13 were examined after 5 weeks of culture and corrected for the best housekeeper index. Hypertrophic genes were highest expressed by BMSCs and NCs. Data are shown as mean ± SD. For statistical evaluation, a mixed model was used. *, ** or *** indicates p -values smaller than 0.05, 0.01 or 0.001 respectively compared to the control condition (asterisk is shown in the bar) or compared to the other cell sources (asterisk is shown above the bar). EC, NC and AC: n=4 donors each; BMSC, AMSC: n=6 donors each. (B) Von Kossa staining was used to evaluate construct calification in vivo . MSCs did not calcify the construct in vivo . Non-seeded alginate and constructs encapsulating ACs did calcify. For each cell source we had a total of 6 alginate constructs: duplicate samples of 3 different donors. EC = Ear Chondrocytes ; NC = Nasal Chondrocytes; AC = Articular Chondrocytes; BMSC = Bone-marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells; AMSC = Adipose-tissue-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells. 76 CHAPTER 4