Respiratory Activity of Isolated Chondrocytes with a Miniaturized Oxygen Electrade System

Abstract

A technique for the isolation of chondrocytes from the articular cartilage of rabbits was modified and improved to yield 5 to 20 x 106 viable cells per preparation. A YSI Model 5331 O2 sensor was modified so that it could rapidly respond in as little as 1 ml of medium. Mean oxygen uptake of cell samples showed that chondrocytes obtained from mature rabbits (1.33 /J! O2/107 cells/hr) had a higher oxidative activity than chondrocytes from immature rabbits (0.8 (A O2/107 cells/hr). Elevation of the incubation temperature from 25 °C to 35 °C increased the chondrocyte oxygen uptake approximately 20% but incubation at 37 °C tended to decrease oxygen uptake. It is evident that articular chondrocyte cells have a real, but fairly low, temperature sensitive oxidative metabolism.