Bone Abstracts

Adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are of interest in the fields of cell therapy and tissue engineering thanks to their potential of differentiating into distinct cell lineages, e.g. osteoblast, chondrocyte, myoblast, and adipocyte. As the capacity of differentiation may vary according to the cell source, here, we compared the potential of osteoblast differentiation of MSCs derived from either bone marrow or adipose tissue. MSCs from rat bone marrow and adipose tissue were cultured under osteogenic conditions for periods of up to 17 days. Cell proliferation was evaluated by counting the number of cells using an automated cell counter, extracellular matrix mineralization by Alizarin Red Staining, and gene expression of key bone markers by real-time RT-PCR. Data were obtained in triplicate (n=3) and compared by Mann–Whitney U test (P<0.05). Cell proliferation was higher in cultures from bone marrow compared with adipose tissue at days 4, 10, and 17 (P<0.05). At day 17, we noticed more extracellular matrix mineralization in cultures from bone marrow compared with adipose tissue (P<0.05). Gene expression of Runx2, collagen type I α1, alkaline phosphatase, bone sialoprotein, and osteocalcin was higher in cultures from bone marrow compared with adipose tissue at days 4, 10, and 17 (P<0.05). We have shown the higher potential of proliferation and osteoblast differentiation of bone marrow MSCs compared with adipose tissue MSCs under the same osteogenic culture conditions. These findings indicate that MSCs source is of relevance and that bone marrow MSCs should be chosen for future research on cell therapy and bone tissue engineering.

FAPESP and CNPq.