Article Chondrocyte proliferation, viability and differentiation is declined following administration of methylphenidate utilized for the treatment of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder F Gumustas 1 , I Yilmaz 1 , DY Sirin 2 , SA Gumustas 3 , AG Batmaz 4 , M Isyar 5 , S Akkaya 6 and M Mahirogullari 7 Abstract Purpose: Methylphenidate (MPH) derivative drugs are used because of psychostimulants effects on attention- deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adults. As far as we know, toxic or anti-proliferative effects of MPH against cartilage tissue were not studied in the literature. The present study was carried out to investigate the possible effects of MPH on the proliferation, viability and differentiation of primary human chondrocytes, in vitro. Methods: Monolayer primary chondrocyte cultures were prepared using osteochondral tissue obtained from patients who underwent a total knee prosthesis operation. Stock solution of MPH was prepared and aliquots having 1–1000 mM concentrations of the drug was composed. These solutions were applied to the wells containing cultured chondrocyte samples within the well plates. Control groups were composed of pure chondrocyte culture and no solution was added into them. All groups were evaluated at 24, 48 and 72 h in order to determine the possible negative effects of the drug on the chondrocytes. The data were evaluated by Tukey’s honestly significantly different test following analysis of variance. Results: In the group where MPH was applied, it was found that viability, proliferation and stage-specific embryonic antigen-1 protein expression were decreased in comparison to the control group. Conclusions: It was emphasized that clinicians should not disregard the fact that this drug might suppress chondrocyte cell proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation. Keywords ADHD, chondrotoxicity, methylphenidate, proliferation, SSEA-1 1 Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Diseases, State Hospital, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health, Tekirdag, Turkey 2 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic, Namik Kemal University Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Tekirdag, Turkey 3 General Secretariat of the Public Hospitals Union, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health, Tekirdag, Turkey 4 Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Istanbul Medipol University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey 5 Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Kozyatagi Central Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey 6 Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Pamukkale University School of Medicine, Denizli, Turkey 7 Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Memorial Health Group, Istanbul, Turkey Corresponding author: I Yilmaz, Department of Pharmacovigilance, Materiovigilance and Rational Use of Drugs, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health, State Hospital, 59100 Tekirdag, Turkey. Email: ibrahimyilmaz77@yahoo.com Human and Experimental Toxicology 1–12 ª The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0960327116678294 het.sagepub.com at ATHABASCA UNIV LIBRARY on November 21, 2016 het.sagepub.com Downloaded from