High‐Speed Centrifugation Efficiently Removes Immunogenic Elements in Osteochondral Allografts

Objectives The current clinical pulse lavage technique for flushing fresh osteochondral allografts (OCAs) to remove immunogenic elements from the subchondral bone is ineffective. This study aimed to identify the optimal method for removing immunogenic elements from OCAs. Methods We examined five methods for the physical removal of immunogenic elements from OCAs from the femoral condyle of porcine knees. We distributed the OCAs randomly into the following seven groups: (1) control, (2) saline, (3) ultrasound, (4) vortex vibration (VV), (5) low‐pulse lavage (LPL), (6) high‐pulse lavage (HPL), and (7) high‐speed centrifugation (HSC). OCAs were evaluated using weight measurement, micro‐computed tomography (micro‐CT), macroscopic and histological evaluation, DNA quantification, and chondrocyte activity testing. Additionally, the subchondral bone was zoned to assess the bone marrow and nucleated cell contents. One‐way ANOVA and paired two‐tailed Student's t‐test are used for statistical analysis. Results Histological evaluation and DNA quantification showed no significant reduction in marrow elements compared to the control group after the OCAs were treated with saline, ultrasound, or VV treatments; however, there was a significant reduction in marrow elements after LPL, HPL, and HSC treatments. Furthermore, HSC more effectively reduced the marrow elements of OCAs in the middle and deep zones compared with LPL (p