Table 1.

Timetable of progressive deprivation of serum over the 6-day culture period of chondrocyte/agarose constructs.

	FBS	ITS	Ascorbic acid	Hepes buffer
Day 0	10%	-	-	10 mM
Day 1	10%	-	-	10 mM
Day 2	5%	-	5 ng/mL	20 mM
Day 3	5%	1%	10 ng/mL	20 mM
Day 4	1%	1%	15 ng/mL	30 mM
Day 5	-	1%	20 ng/mL	30 mM
Day 6	-	1%	20 ng/mL	30 mM

Timetable of progressive substitution of ITS for serum in the culture medium of the chondrocyte/agarose constructs, over the 6-day culture period preceding compression. The concentrations of ascorbic acid and Hepes were progressively increased to allow recovery of the cells after their extraction.