The Critical Role of Hypoxia in the Re-Differentiation of Human Articular Chondrocytes

The preservation of the chondrogenic phenotype and hypoxia-related physiological microenvironment are major challenges in the 2D culture of primary human chondrocytes. To address this problem, we develop a 3D culture system generating scaffold-free spheroids from human chondrocytes. Our results highlight the chondrogenic potential of cultured human articular chondrocytes in a 3D system combined with hypoxia independently of the cartilage source. After 14 days of culture, we developed spheroids with homogenous diameter and shape from hyaline cartilage donors. Spheroids generated in hypoxia showed a significantly increased glycosaminoglycans synthesis and up-regulated the expression of SOX9, ACAN, COL2A1, COMP, and SNAI1 compared to those obtained under normoxic conditions. Therefore, we conclude that spheroids developed under hypoxic conditions modulate the expression of chondrogenesis-related genes and native tissue features better than 2D cultures. Thus, this scaffold-free 3D culture system represents a novel in vitro model that can be used for cartilage biology research.