Revista de bioingeniería y ciencia biomédica

Enhanced in-Vivo Bone Formation by Bone Marrow Differentiated Mesenchymal Stem Cells Grown in Chitosan Scaffold

Abstract

Laeticia Nassif, Abdo Jurjus, Jihad Nassar, Joseph Ghafari and Marwan El Sabban

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the differentiation of BMMSC to osteoblasts seeded in a biocompatible scaffold in vitro, would enhance bone formation in vivo over existing bone.

Background: The use of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC) with appropriate scaffolds in critical size defects and ectopic sites has been proven to be a valuable bone tissue engineering (BTE) technique that could potentially overcome the drawbacks of the current bone graft modalities, but the use of such techniques to grow bone over existing cortical bone has not been investigated yet. Materials and Methods: Autologous rabbit BMMSC grown in Chitosan scaffolds and pretreated with dexamethasone (Dx) were transplanted subperiosteally and bilaterally over the calvarial bone of syngeneic rabbits. Biopsies were analysed using radiographical, histological and histochemical methods for the assessment of bone formation within the scaffolds and its integration to the host calvarial bone.

Results: With Dx stimulation, alkaline phosphatase protein level and activity of BMMSC cultured in vitro increased by three folds and the proliferation rate decreased up 90%. In vivo, all cell seeded implants resulted in the formation of an outer collar of bone integrated with the host cortical, regardless of pre-differentiation.

Conclusion: BMMSC had osteogenic features in vitro and in vivo in conjunction with Chitosan scaffold which can have diverse clinical applications in maxilofacial bone regeneration.