Chondrogenic Priming

Joint-tissue engineering methods aim to expand out and implant chondrocytes or stem cells into the joints to initiate cartilage repair and matrix production equal in composition and mechanical properties to native healthy tissue. However, chondrocytes in cell culture have difficulty expanding out efficiently while maintaining a healthy phenotype that can produce tissue.

Our group conducts research on the effects of expansion culture on chondrocytes and aims to slow down or reverse the effects of dedifferentiation. Past work has shown that bovine chondrocytes during expansion culture, dedifferentiation occurs as early as passage 3 with significantly activated cellular stress fibers leading to differences in cell mechanics and morphology. This dedifferentiation process can be slowed down by providing chondrogenic growth factors that help retain cell morphology and attain ECM production that better resembles healthy native ECM. Current work focuses on showing similar results in human chondrocytes and investigating whether or not the response to GF is similar across patient demographics (age, sex, race, etc.). This study mainly focuses on the transcriptional response of chondrocytes to GF-priming under 2D expansion culture and 3D construct culture, followed by assessing biochemical content of de novo tissue production.

In addition to this, we are investigating whether or not the improved tissue production is maintained when cells are transitioned from traditional cell culture to an inflammatory environment. The goal is to investigate the effects of inflammation on human chondrocyte culture and determine whether or not GF-priming or intervention drugs are useful in preparing or treating cells in inflamed joint sites.

If you are interested in the most recent updates of this project, please feel free to contact Pete Gatenil (petepg at berkeley dot edu).