“…Adult human bone marrow-derived stem cells (hMSCs) were expanded to passage 2 and seeded into 6.5 mm diameter transwell inserts (3.0 lm pore polycarbonate membrane, Corning) at a density of 4 Â 10^6 cells per insert [29,30]. Constructs were cultured in either chondrogenic medium (consisting of hgDMEM GlutaMAX supplemented with 100 U/mL penicillin/streptomycin (both Gibco), 100 lg/mL sodium pyruvate, 40 lg/mL L-proline, 50 lg/mL L-ascorbic acid-2-phosphate, 4.7 lg/mL linoleic acid, 1.5 mg/mL bovine serum albumin, 1Â insulin-transferrin-sele nium, 100 nM dexamethasone (all from Sigma-Aldrich), 2.5 lg/mL amphotericin B, and 10 ng/mL of human transforming growth factor-b3 (TGF-b3; Prospec-Tany TechnoGene Ltd)) for 6 weeks at 5% O 2 or cultured in chondrogenic medium for the first 4 weeks and switched to hypertrophic medium (consisting of hgDMEM GlutaMAX supplemented with 100 U/mL penicillin/streptomycin, 100 lg/mL sodium pyruvate, 40 lg/mL L-proline, 50 lg/mL L-ascorbic acid-2-phosphate, 4.7 lg/mL linoleic acid, 1.5 mg/mL bovine serum albumin, 1Â insulin-transferrin-se lenium, 1 nM dexamethasone, 2.5 lg/mL amphotericin B, 1 nM L-thyroxine, and 10 mM b-Glycerophosphate (both SigmaAldrich)) at 20% O 2 for the final 2 weeks to induce deposition of a hypertrophic cartilage ECM (Fig.…”