Synovial mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an attractive cell source for cartilage and meniscus regeneration. Use of primary MSCs is the preferable because these cells are safer than cells passaged several times in terms of probability of chromosome abnormalities. The effect of hypoxia on the proliferation of MSCs is controversial and remains unknown in primary synovial MSCs. Primary synovial MSCs were cultured at normoxia or hypoxia, and colony number, cell number, surface epitopes, mitochondria activity, TEM finding, and chondrogenic potential were analyzed. To investigate the effect of hypoxia on attachment of synovial MSCs, cells were cultured at hypoxia for the first 3 days, then cultured at normoxia. To investigate the effect of hypoxia on proliferation, cells were also cultured at hypoxia for the last 11 days. Hypoxia increased colony number and cell number per dish in primary synovial MSCs. Hypoxia did not affect cell number per colony, surface epitopes, mitochondria activity, TEM finding or chondrogenic potential. Hypoxia for the first 3 days did not alter colony number per dish or cell number per dish, while hypoxia for the last 11 days increased. Hypoxia enhanced proliferation through increase of colony formation rate with chondrogenic potential in primary synovial MSCs.

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The present study investigates how effectively lidocaine ions are transported across a cellophane membrane through the application of either a direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC). The cellophane membrane was set on a parallelplate- type acrylic cell with platinum electrodes at both ends, filled with a donor cell of a 1 % aqueous solution of lidocaine and a receptor cell with distilled water. Lidocaine concentrations were measured for 60 min while the following voltages were applied, with changes every 10 min: 3 V DC and 7.5 V sine wave AC; frequency at 1 kHz. As a result, lidocaine concentrations in the receptor cell increased in a time-dependent manner. Significant increases in lidocaine concentrations were observed in groups where the voltage combination consisted of DC 30 min/AC 30 min, DC 50 min/AC 10 min, DC 60 min and AC 10 min/DC 50 min, compared with the passive diffusion group or in groups where voltage application was performed for 20, 30 , 40, 50 and 60 min. Significant increases were also observed in groups where the voltage combination consisted of A C 6 0 min, D C 10 min/AC 5 0 min, AC 3 0 min/ DC 30 min and AC 50 min/DC 10 min, compared with the passive diffusion group or in groups where voltage application was performed for 40, 50 and 60 min. These results suggest that lidocaine was delivered more rapidly with DC than with AC, and that its ions are transported faster when voltage is switched from DC to AC than from AC to DC, which is presumably due to the contribution of electrorepulsion by DC voltage application and the vibration energy infiltration mechanism owning to AC. Iontophoresis in combination with DC and AC was found to enable highly efficient drug delivery that shares the benefits of both forms of current application.

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