Höfundar:
Máney Dögg Hjaltadóttir, Eiríkur Steingrímsson, Sara Sigurbjörnsdóttir
Cell culture is an important process used in various studies to investigate cellular functions, without the use of in vivo models. The regular two-dimensional cultures however have their disadvantages as the cells are far from being in their natural state, which might impact the credibility of the results. Three dimensional cultures bridge the gap between the standard cell cultures and in vivo systems, giving the cells an environment similar to their in vivo microenvironment. This work aims to find an optimal three-dimensional culturing system to mimic the environment of chondrocytes within the articular cartilage. Chondrocytes are the only cells within the aricular cartilage, where they are sparsely distributed in extracellular matrix and maintain its homeostasis. In osteoarthritis, chondrocytes become hypertrophic with increased catabolic activity. This leads to the degradation of the articular cartilage along with the immense joint pain and loss of function characterising osteoarthritis. In this work, two different hydrogels were compared, GrowDex and PureCol, for the embedding and differentiation of the chondrogenic mouse cell line, ATDC5. Supplemented media was used to drive chondrogenic differentiation of the cells leading to an increased matrix secretion and expression of chondrocyte markers e.g. Col2A1. Further more, stimulation with pro-inflammatory cytokines resulted in upregulation of hypertrophic markers suggesting an induction of an OA-like phenotype. Having a representative culturing system is of great use when evaluating the molecular mechanisms of cells. In continuation, we aim to utilise this three-dimensional culturing system to better understand the underlying mechanisms behind hypertrophic chondrocytes in OA.