Demineralized bone promotes chondrocyte or osteoblast differentiation of human marrow stromal cells cultured in collagen sponges

Demineralized bone implants have been used for many types of craniomaxillofacial, orthopedic, periodontal, and hand reconstruction procedures. In previous studies, we showed that demineralized bone powder (DBP) induces chondrogenesis of human dermal fibroblasts in a DBP/collagen sponge system that optimized interactions between particles of DBP and target cells in cell culture. In this study, we test the hypothesis that DBP promotes chondrogenesis or osteogenesis of human marrow stromal cells (hMSCs) in 3-D collagen sponge culture, depending upon the culture conditions. We first confirmed that hMSCs have chondrogenic potential when treated with TGF-beta, either in 2-D monolayer cultures or in 3-D porous collagen sponges. Second, we found that DBP markedly enhanced chondrogenesis in hMSCs in 3-D sponges, as assessed by metachromasia and expression of chondrocyte-specific genes AGGRECAN, COL II, and COL X. Human dermal fibroblasts (hDFs) were used to define mechanisms of chondroinduction because unlike hMSCs they have no inherent chondrogenic potential. In situ hybridization revealed that hDFs vicinal to DBPs express chondrocyte-specific genes AGGRECAN or COL II. Macroarray analysis showed that DBP activates TGF-beta/BMP signaling pathway genes in hDFs. Finally, DBP induced hMSCs to express the osteoblast phenotype when cultured with osteogenic supplements. These studies show how culture conditions can influence the differentiation pathway that human marrow stromal cells follow when stimulated by DBP. These results support the potential to engineer cartilage or bone in vitro by using human bone marrow stromal cells and DBP/collagen scaffolds.