Cultivation of Intervertebral Disc Cells in Medium Fortified with Growth Factors Improved In Vitro Chondrogenesis

Various chondrogenic growth factors have been shown to promote proliferation, matrix production and early chondrogenesis of intervertebral disc (IVD). The objective of this study is to reconstruct IVD via tissue engineering technique and to evaluate in-vitro chondrogenesis of chondrocytes cultured in basic growth medium with chondrogenic growth factors (FDGFs) and without chondrogenic growth factors (FD). The annulus fibrosus (AF) and nucleus pulposus (NP) were aseptically dissected from the lumbar discs of sheep and the tissues enzymatically digested and cultured in-vitro. Passage 1 cells were used to form in-vitro construct with autologous fibrin as the biomaterial. All constructs were stabilized for 14 days in their respective growth media. Histological and sulphated-glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) analysis were performed at the end of the experiment. The AF cells showed greater growth kinetic profile and higher viability in FDGFs while the NP cells showed no differences for both medium. The construct of AF and NP in FDGFs showed a bigger size construct compared to FD. The qualities of both constructs were similar as evidence by Safranin O staining in both groups. In conclusion, FDGFs increase the viability and quantity of cells for AF and not in NP. However, FDGFs supplementation improved in-vitro constructs formation for both cells type.