[In vitro culture system for the characterization of growth potential of cartilage transplants].

In order to find reliable criteria for determining the prognosis of transplanted cartilage, the quality of isolated rabbit chondrocytes was assayed in vitro. A culture system of semisolid medium was able to detect colony-forming units of chondrocytes. Also their proliferative and differentiating capacity could be investigated. Colony formation in vitro follows a strict dose-response relationship. An inverse relationship was observed between age of the donor and the colony incidence in vitro. Cells from neonatal cartilage could be induced to grow as fibroblastic colonies in the presence of conditioned medium from fibroblastic monolayer cultures. No effect, however, could be observed with chondrocyte-derived conditioned medium.