Alteration in the differentiated phenotypes of cultured chondrocytes from human articular cartilage under various culture conditions.

Chondrocytes produce proteoglycans and type II collagen as their main matrix components, which can also be considered to be indices of their differentiated phenotype. Each differentiation step occurs in accordance with the environment of each cell. The analysis of the properties of chondrocytes has mostly been performed in cultured cells. In this report, we examined the effects of the culture media and fetal calf serum on cultured human articular chondrocytes. It was confirmed that the quantity of proteoglycan produced by the chondrocytes changed according to the different kinds of media used, and that the molecular size of the proteoglycans showed a tendency towards de-differentiation with decreasing fetal calf serum concentrations. We conclude that our experimental results which are obtained in cultured human articular chondrocytes should be discussed with consideration to the finding of this report.