Cartilage replacement, useful particularly for repairing joint defects, comprises differentiated and proliferating chondrocytes in collagen-based biomatrix

摘要

Cartilage replacement (A) prepared by (i) incorporating dedifferentiated cartilage cells (B) into a three-dimensional, gel-like biomatrix containing at least 1.5 mg/ml collagen in buffered, serum-containing cell culture medium and (ii) culturing (B) so that they redifferentiate and/or replicate to a form a transplantable (A). Independent claims are also included for the following: (a) similar material in which the biomatrix is seeded with differentiated (B) and these cultured for replication, while remaining differentiated; (b) similar material in which (B) are checked for function, morphology and/or differentiation status simultaneously with production of (A) or afterwards; and (c) biomatrix for culturing cells, particularly (B).