Growth of condylar, epiphyseal and spheno-occipital synchrondrosal cartilages cultured on medium BGJ.

The purpose of this experiment was to examine the growth of condylar, epiphyseal, and spheno-occipital synchrondrosal cartilages cultured on medium BGJ. Materials from 12 neonatal rabbits were cultured for 7 days on this medium with the addition of 0, 10, or 20% fetal calf serum. Epiphyseal cartilages cultured with the addition of 20% fetal calf serum showed slightly better maintenance of in situ state, though little morphological changes were observed during 7 days. Spheno-occipital synchondrosal cartilages cultured with the addition of 10% or 20% fetal calf serum were histologically relatively similar to in situ state than those cultured without fetal calf serum, but no growth in length and width of these cartilages was observed. On the other hand, cultured condylar cartilages showed the least maintenance of histological and histochemical features. It was assumed that medium BGJ was not a recommendable medium for the organ culture of condylar cartilage.