Basic fibroblast growth factor with human serum supplementation: enhancement of human chondrocyte proliferation and promotion of cartilage regeneration.

INTRODUCTION: The objectives of this study were to determine the optimum concentration of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in foetal bovine serum (FBS) or human serum (HS) supplemented medium for adult human nasal septum chondrocyte culture and to evaluate the potential of cartilage regeneration. METHODS: Dose effects of bFGF were evaluated from a range of 0.0 ng/ml to 10.0 ng/ml in the culture medium either supplemented with ten percent HS or ten percent FBS. Chondrocyte growth rate, viability and gene expression were evaluated. Cultured chondrocytes were then suspended in hydrogel for cartilage regeneration. Engineered cartilages were evaluated with standard histological staining and gene expression analysis. RESULTS: Our results showed that the chondrocyte growth rate increased in a dose dependent manner of bFGF until 5.0 ng/ml. This increment is further enhanced with ten percent HS supplementation. All cultured chondrocytes exhibited the same gene expression profile regardless of bFGF concentration and type of serum used. The histological staining and gene expression analysis of engineered cartilage after implantation showed characteristics similar to native cartilage. CONCLUSION: bFGF with ten percent HS was able to accelerate the chondrocyte growth rate, provided more chondrocytes for therapeutic purposes and therefore minimised the amount of nasal septum cartilage needed to be harvested from patients. The combination of 5.0 ng/ml of bFGF and ten percent HS in the culture medium was safer and had less risk compared to FBS. It also demonstrated valuable implications on constructing high quality autologous cartilage for treating cartilage defects, especially in head and neck reconstructive surgery.