Normal human adult articular chondrocytes were used to determine how the chondrocyte phenotype is modulated by culture conditions following long-term culture. We report here for the first time that human articular chondrocytes have a lifespan in the range of 34-37 population doublings. While chondrocytes cultured as monolayers displayed a fibroblastoid morphology and grew faster, those cultured as suspensions over agarose adopted a round morphology and formed clusters of cells reminiscent of chondrocyte differentiation in intact cartilage, with little or no DNA synthesis. These morphologies were independent of the age of the culture. Despite, these morphological differences, however, chondrocytes expressed markers at mRNA and protein levels characteristic of cartilage: namely, types II and IX collagens and the large aggregating proteoglycans, aggrecan, versican and link protein, but not syndecan, under both culture conditions. However, they also expressed type I collagen alpha 1(I) and alpha 2(I) chains. It has been suggested that expression of collagen alpha 1(I) by chondrocytes cultured as monolayers is a marker of the loss of the chondrocyte phenotype. However, we show here, using reverse transcriptase/polymerase chain reaction, that normal fresh intact human articular cartilage expresses collagen alpha 1(I). The data show that following long-term culture human articular chondrocytes retain their differentiated characteristics and that cell shape does not correlate with the expression of the chondrocyte phenotype. It is proposed that loss of the chondrocyte phenotype is marked by the loss of one or more cartilage-specific molecules rather than by the appearance of non-cartilage-specific molecules.