| Abstract: | Single cell suspensions have been prepared from rabbit cartilage by collagenase digestion in the presence of fetal bovine serum. When inoculated into medium F12 supplemented with 5% fetal bovine serum and 5% rabbit serum, the cartilage cell suspensions yield large healthy colonies of epithelial-like cells with an average plating efficiency of 47%. At the end of a 14 day incubation period, the centers of many of the colonies are thickened into multilayered aggregates. Such colonies exhibit serveral cartilage-like properties, including metachromatic staining with toluidine blue, dense brown staining with bismark brown, bright green staining with alcian green, and a refractile matrix which can be seen with the phase contrast microscope to surround the living cells. Similar properties have also been observed in second and third passage subcultures. |
