Graff Lab
Director: Ron Graff, PhD
The Graff Lab studies cartilage biology and osteoarthritis with chondron cultures.
A chondron is a chondrocyte with its surrounding pericellular matrix. Chondrons were first isolated from articular cartilage by Tony Poole using homogenization (mechanically isolated chondrons) see references below. In our lab, chondrons are isolated using the enzymes, dispase and collagenase (enzymatically isolated). Chondrons produce more extracellular matrix than chondrocytes isolated without their pericellular matrix.