Compressed and non-compressed tissue-engineered HS-deficient and WT cartilage

Murine primary rib-cage chondrocytes (mRCs) were isolated from E15.5 WT and HS-deficient Ext1gt/gt mice and expanded for 6-7 days. Tissue-engineered cartilage was generated by a 14-day chondrogenic culture of mRCs at 5×10^5 cells per 25 µl agarose carrier. Engineered cartilage was exposed to cyclic unconfined compression for 3 hours: 10-minute cycles of dynamic unconfined compression (25 % dynamic compression at 1 Hz superimposed to 10 % static off-set) were intermitted by 10-minute breaks (10 % static off-set).