Cell response in mixtures of surfactant-culture medium—Towards a systemic approach to cell-based treatments for focal osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis is a degenerative joint disease, which causes severe long-term pain and physical disability. It is becoming more important to improve diagnosis and understanding of the disease process and subsequently develop new intervention to delay or even reverse the disease progress. Our study was designed to combine two relatively novel treatment techniques, autologous chondrocyte transplantation (ACT) and proposed application of medical remedies based on surface-active phospholipids. To this end we exposed chondrocyte to culture environments with mixtures of culture medium and phospholipid solutions.Following various culture periods, cell survival and well-being were determined by measuring proliferation and assessing morphological features, and comparing these with the behaviour of cells grown in classical which were not mixed with surfactant, i.e., control culture medium.Scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy demonstrate that the cells exposed to mixtures with surfactant were as healthy as those in the control environment with polygonal morphology, while proliferation assay indicated a noticeably higher level of proliferation over similar periods, for cells cultured in media that was mixed with surfactants. Also, the cells in media with unsaturated surfactants responded better than those cultured in mixtures containing saturated surfactant.