Differentiation plasticity of human fetal articular chondrocytes.

Abstract

To test chondrogenic differentiation potential, we examined the differentiation plasticity of isolated human fetal articular chondrocytes (HFACs). STUDY AND DESIGN SETTING: Culture-expanded human fetal articular chondrocytes (HFACs) were analyzed for chondrogenic, adipogenic, osteogenic capacity and neural differentiation ability in defined in vitro culture systems. The different assays demonstrated that culture-expanded HFACs have potential to form cartilage in pellet mass culture, to form adipose cells, osteogenic cells, and neural cells in monolayer culture. These results suggest that within human fetal articular cartilages there are MSC-like cells that exhibit differentiation plasticity that is comparable with that of BM-MSCs and they may be a new kind of seeding cells for head and neck cartilage reconstruction.