Ongoing research is aimed at increasing cartilage tissue yield and quality from multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) for the purpose of treating cartilage damage in horses. Low oxygen culture has been shown to enhance chondrogenesis, and novel membrane culture has been proposed to increase tissue yield and homogeneity. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of reduced oxygen and membrane culture during in vitro chondrogenesis of equine cord blood (CB) MSC.
CB-MSC (n = 5 foals) were expanded at 21% oxygen prior to 3-week differentiation in membrane or pellet culture at 5% and 21% oxygen. Assessment included histological examination (H&E, toluidine Blue, immunohistochemistry (IHC) for collagen type I and II), protein quantification by hydroxyproline assay and dimethylmethylene assay, and mRNA analysis for collagen IA1, collagen IIA1, collagen XA1, HIF1α and Sox9.
Among treatment groups, 5% membrane culture produced neocartilage most closely resembling hyaline cartilage. Membrane culture resulted in increased wet mass, homogenous matrix morphology and an increase in total collagen content, while 5% oxygen culture resulted in higher GAG and type II collagen content. No significant differences were observed for mRNA analysis.
Membrane culture at 5% oxygen produces a comparatively larger amount of higher quality neocartilage. Matrix homogeneity is attributed to a uniform diffusion gradient and reduced surface tension. Membrane culture holds promise for scale-up for therapeutic purposes, for cellular preconditioning prior to cytotherapeutic applications, and for modeling system for gas-dependent chondrogenic differentiation studies.