At JoBoE, human cells are routinely isolated and characterized from different sources.
Bone, cartilage and intervertebral disc biopsies setting up primary osteoblasts (OBs), chondrocyte and disc cell (IVD) cultures
Peripheral blood to obtain monocytes and set up primary osteoclast (OCs) cultures
Wharton Jelly of umbilical cord and set up mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs) cultures.
We use several tissue culture and co-culture models to study i. the molecular mechanisms underlying osteogenic, chondrogenic and discogenic differentiation, ii. the disease mechanisms and iii. new treatment approaches. We focus on 3D culture models that mimic the in vivo microenvironment, by using i. the combination of the cells with specific scaffolds, ii. the cell culture in bioreactors such as the RCCS-4TM bioreactor (SyntheconTM, Inc, USA) with a High Aspect Ratio Vessel (HARV), and iii. the exposure of the cells to hypoxic condition in Xvivo System model X3 (BioSpherix Ltd, NY, USA).
