Fig. 3.

Proliferation analysis of MMSCs and fibrochondrocytes. a Cultures of MMSCs and fibrochondrocytes were started with a cell number of 1.5 x 104 cells/well. The cells were cultured for 9 days ad cell number was determined by counting with a cytometry. Growth of MMSCs was significantly higher than that of fibrochondrocytes at 5, 7 and 9 days in culture. b Population doubling time (PDT) of the fibrochondrocytes (hrs) was higher than that of the MMSCs (hrs), demonstrating that MMSCs proliferated faster than fibrochondrocytes (*P < 0.05)