Figure 5.

(a) Allograft chondrocytes incubated at 37°C show positive staining using MitoTracker to evaluate mitochondrial activity as a surrogate for cell viability. (b) In contrast chondrocytes from the same viable allograft incubated at 4°C do not exhibit positive MitoTracker staining. Thus pre-warming of allograft cartilage should be performed prior to the use of metabolic assays to assess chondrocyte metabolic activity.