Bone tissue engineering via human induced pluripotent, umbilical cord and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in rat cranium.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are an exciting cell source with great potential for tissue engineering. Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) have been used in clinics but are limited by several disadvantages, hence alternative sources of MSCs such as umbilical cord MSCs (hUCMSCs) are being investigated. However, there has been no report comparing hiPSCs, hUCMSCs and hBMSCs for bone regeneration. The objectives of this pilot study were to investigate hiPSCs, hUCMSCs and hBMSCs for bone tissue engineering, and compare their bone regeneration via seeding on biofunctionalized macroporous calcium phosphate cement (CPC) in rat cranial defects. For all three types of cells, approximately 90% of the cells remained alive on CPC scaffolds. Osteogenic genes were up-regulated, and mineral synthesis by cells increased with time in vitro for all three types of cells. The new bone area fractions at 12weeks (mean±sd; n=6) were (30.4±5.8)%, (27.4±9.7)% and (22.6±4.7)% in hiPSC-MSC-CPC, hUCMSC-CPC and hBMSC-CPC respectively, compared to (11.0±6.3)% for control (p<0.05). No significant differences were detected among the three types of stem cells (p>0.1). New blood vessel density was higher in cell-seeded groups than control (p<0.05). De novo bone formation and participation by implanted cells was confirmed via immunohistochemical staining. In conclusion, (1) hiPSCs, hUCMSCs and hBMSCs greatly enhanced bone regeneration, more than doubling the new bone amount of cell-free CPC control; (2) hiPSC-MSCs and hUCMSCs represented viable alternatives to hBMSCs; (3) biofunctionalized macroporous CPC-stem cell constructs had a robust capacity for bone regeneration.