Patients undergoing total hip replacement were consented, and bone marrow and peripheral progenitor cells were enumerated based on aldehyde dehydrogenase activity and CD34 and CD133 expression.
Human primary (short-term culture) osteoblasts (ORT-1, Hum31 and Hum54) were obtained from healthy patients undergoing total knee replacement after informed consent.
Synovial tissues were obtained from patients undergoing total knee/hip replacement after informed consent (local research ethics committee reference number 05/Q0703/198) and used for isolation of synovial fibroblasts as described previously [ 17].
Human primary (short-term culture; i.e., passage <10) osteoblasts (ORT-1, Hum31, Hum54, Hum63 and Hum65) were obtained from healthy patients undergoing total knee replacement after informed consent.
Human rheumatoid synovial membrane samples were obtained from RA patients undergoing joint replacement surgery, following informed consent and anonymisation.
Human MSC cultures were established from BM aspirates of healthy donors or from OA patients and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients undergoing hip replacement surgery, after informed consent.
Briefly, bone marrow was obtained from patients (50 60 years old) undergoing hip and knee replacement surgery with informed consent given by all donors.
Human bone marrow-derived MSCs were isolated from marrow reamings of femurs from five patients, aged 48 to 62 years (mean age 54 years), undergoing total hip replacement surgery after informed consent and as approved by the institutional review board of the University of Würzburg as described earlier [ 11, 19].
Mesenchymal stromal cells were isolated from the bone marrow of caput femoris upon hip replacement surgery after written consent using guidelines approved by the Ethic Committee on the Use of Human Subjects at the University of Aachen (Permit Number EK128/09) as described before [ 19].
Inclusion criteria included a diagnosis of OA of the hip, primary hip replacement, and signed informed consent; exclusion criteria included causes of hip disease other than OA, severe mental illness or dementia, and patients unwilling or unable to take part in the study.
