Human mesenchymal stem cells and biomaterials interaction: a promising synergy to improve spine fusion

Abstract

Purpose: Spine fusion is the gold standard treatment in degenerative and traumatic spine diseases. The bone regenerative medicine needs (i) in vitro functionally active osteoblasts, and/or (ii) the in vivo induction of the tissue. The bone tissue engineering seems to be a very promising approach for the effectiveness of orthopedic surgical procedures, clinical applications are often hampered by the limited availability of bone allograft or substitutes. New biomaterials have been recently developed for the orthopedic applications. The main characteristics of these scaffolds are the ability to induce the bone tissue formation by generating an appropriate environment for (i) the cell growth and (ii) recruiting precursor bone cells for the proliferation and differentiation. A new prototype of biomaterials known as "bioceramics" may own these features. Bioceramics are bone substitutes mainly composed of calcium and phosphate complex salt derivatives.

Methods: In this study, the characteristics bioceramics bone substitutes have been tested with human mesenchymal stem cells obtained from the bone marrow of adult orthopedic patients.

Results: These cellular models can be employed to characterize in vitro the behavior of different biomaterials, which are used as bone void fillers or three-dimensional scaffolds.

Conclusions: Human mesenchymal stem cells in combination with biomaterials seem to be good alternative to the autologous or allogenic bone fusion in spine surgery. The cellular model used in our study is a useful tool for investigating cytocompatibility and biological features of HA-derived scaffolds.

Fig. 1

Surface antigenic profile of hMSCs obtained from bone marrow aspirates at the first culture passage. a CD235 and CD45 are considered as negative markers while b CD29, CD44, CD71 and CD105 are the positive markers

Fig. 2

Relative amount per sample of pFAK (Tyr³⁹⁷) quantified by ELISA testing (n = 3). A difference between Engipore in the form of chips and Sintlife in paste form occurred. **TCPS exhibited the highest relative amount of pFAK (Tyr³⁹⁷) (p < 0.01)

Fig. 3

Cytoskeleton analysis by Phalloidin TRITC staining of hMSCs cultured on biomaterials. Actin filaments do not show alteration in the structural organization confirming the compatibility of assayed biomaterials, a Sintlife b control (TCPS). ×400 magnification