15502-m-pleumeekers

highest in constructs containing h AMSC/ b ACs and h BMSC/ b ACs, albeit this did not reach statistical significance due to the large variation between samples. (Figure 4C) These results confirm our in-vitro results by showing that co-cultures of h MSCs and b ACs improve cartilage formation. However, in vivo this phenomenon seems independent of the h MSC-source used, although large donor variation is observed. Figure 4. Cartilage matrix formation in constructs containing h MSCs and/or b ACs, 8 weeks after subcutaneous implantation in mice. Biochemical (sGAG (A) and collagen (B) content) and biomechanical evaluation (C) , 8 weeks after subcutaneous implantation. The left graphs in A and B, demonstrate the amount of matrix components per construct, whereas for the right graphs matrix production is normalized to the initially seeded primary ACs. A control condition - containing similar amounts of b ACs (0.8*10 6 nc /ml) without supplementation of h MSCs - was evaluated to determine the additional effect of h MSCs (3.2*10 6 nc /ml) on b ACs in co-cultures (dotted line). *, ** or *** indicates p -values smaller than 0.05, 0.01 or 0.001 respectively compared to the control condition. Data are shown as box-whisker plots. For statistical evaluation, a Kruskal-Wallis followed by the Mann-Whitney-U test was used followed by a Bonferroni's post-hoc comparisons test. h AMSC = human Adipose-tissue-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell ( n=3 experiments with 3 independent donors) ; h BMSC = human Bone-marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell ( n=3 experiments with 3 independent donors) ; b AC = bovine Articular Chondrocyte ( n=3 experiments with 3 pools of donors). Per experiment, 2 samples were used for analyses. 97 AMSCs OR BMSCs FULFILL A TROPHIC ROLE IN CO-CULTURE 5