Differentiation plasticity of human fetal articular chondrocytes. |
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Authors: | Ying Cui Hong Wang Minjun Yu Tianri Xu Xuepei Li Lingsong Li |
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Affiliation: | Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing City 100083, China. |
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Abstract: | OBJECTIVE: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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. |
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