Effect of ascorbic and chondrogenic derived decellularized extracellular matrix from mesenchymal stem cells on their proliferation, viability and differentiation

The development and application of biomaterials to promote stem cell proliferation and differentiation has undergone major expansion over the last few years. Decellularized stem cell matrix (DSCMs) represent bioactive and biocompatible materials which achieve similar characteristics of native extracellular matrix. DSCMs have given promising outcomes in generating novel cell culture substrates mimicking specific niche microenvironments in tissue engineering. This research aims at producing two different DSCMs obtained from adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, characterize them and evaluate the DSCMs bioactivity on mesenchymal stem cells. DSCMs were produced using ascorbic or chondrogenic medium, which were then used as a scaffold for adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, respectively. The biological characteristics of both types of DSCMs, including cell attachment, morphology, proliferation, viability, and chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation were evaluated and compared. Differences between ascorbic derived-DSCMs and chondrogenic derived DSCMs were found. Chondrogenic derived-DSCMs remained compact and stronger during extraction and this made their handling easier. Ascorbic derived-DSCMs showed a different protein composition to chondrogenic-DSCMs. Bioactive characteristics analyzed were different depending on the cellular origin of DSCM and the method used to produce them. The DSCMs obtained in this work constitutes favorable structure- and growth factors providing a microenvironment which is very similar to that of native ECM, which results in enhanced biological potential of the MSCs and responsiveness to the induction of differentiation. We found differences between ascorbic derived-DSCMs and chondrogenic derived DSCMs. Our results suggest that the cell source used to produce DSCMs is highly related to the bioactive characteristics of DSCMs.