FIG. 3.

Generation of cartilage–tantalum composite. (A) Rendering of the inner compartment of a multiwell biochamber used to generate the constructs. The black arrow indicates one well, and the blue arrow indicates the porous membrane, which forms the bottom of the well. This component is placed into a 10-cm culture dish to complete the biochamber, as with the single-well biochamber (Fig. 1). (B) Schematic showing the dimensions of the multiwell biochamber. (C) Process flow for cartilage-tantalum composite generation. The culture medium is first added to the tissue culture dish (outer compartment) until the culture medium begins to enter the wells (inner compartment) through the porous membrane (1). Cell suspension is then added to the wells, using enough culture medium to fill the well (9 mL). Extra culture medium is then added to the culture dish until the medium is ∼5 mm from the top of the metal frame (2). Constructs are cultured for 2 days, then porous tantalum is placed on top of the developing neocartilage, and cartilage grows through the interconnected pores (3).