Articular cartilage repair. Behavior of rabbit chondrocytes during tissue culture and subsequent allografting.

Chondrocytes from rabbit articular cartilage were freed from their matrix by enzymatic digestion. Under appropriate conditions of culture, these cells proliferated through many generations while maintaining their chondrocytic differentiation. They produced a cartilage-like matrix which was studied by histologic, electron microscopic, and chemical techniques. Chondroid tissue from subculture on decalcified bone, allografted into the rabbit knee, repaired a large articular defect in 10 days.