Evaluation of the osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells on modified bone substitute materials

Introduction: The development and improvement of new materials for bone tissue engineering is desired due to the restricted availability of autologous material and improvable material characteristics of available alloplastic materials1. To test the potential of newly designed materials and/or modifications, the adhesion, proliferation and differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) can be used to perform in vitro studies. In this study we evaluated the adhesion velocity of hMSCs on different modified materials as titan, iron composites and polystyrene to estimate the modification strategy. Materials and Methods: hMSCs were isolated of bone marrow and were characterized thoroughly by FACS analysis, histochemical staining and qRT-PCR studies concerning their osteogenic differentiation potential. Cell adhesion on the different modified materials was evaluated by immunological staining for actin and vinculin at different time points. The osteogenic differentiation of the cells on selected modifications was detected by quantitative measurements of the alkaline phosphatase as well as determining the total DNA volume of adherent cells. Results and Discussion / References: Modified surfaces revealed an influence on cell adhesion. An increase of adherent cells was detected after 24 hours and 48 hours of cell culture. Furthermore, an increase of ALP was seen in differentiated cells after 14 days of osteogenic induction. The results of this study indicate the importance of appropriate surface characteristics for cell adhesion and differentiation. In vitro testing of newly developed materials/surfaces is an important tool to reduce animal testing and must be further developed to acheive reproducible and significant test methods with primary cells.