Engineering bone tissue from human embryonic stem cells

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 May 29;109(22):8705-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1201830109. Epub 2012 May 14.

Abstract

In extensive bone defects, tissue damage and hypoxia lead to cell death, resulting in slow and incomplete healing. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) can give rise to all specialized lineages found in healthy bone and are therefore uniquely suited to aid regeneration of damaged bone. We show that the cultivation of hESC-derived mesenchymal progenitors on 3D osteoconductive scaffolds in bioreactors with medium perfusion leads to the formation of large and compact bone constructs. Notably, the implantation of engineered bone in immunodeficient mice for 8 wk resulted in the maintenance and maturation of bone matrix, without the formation of teratomas that is consistently observed when undifferentiated hESCs are implanted, alone or in bone scaffolds. Our study provides a proof of principle that tissue-engineering protocols can be successfully applied to hESC progenitors to grow bone grafts for use in basic and translational studies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bioreactors
  • Bone Transplantation / methods
  • Bone and Bones / cytology
  • Bone and Bones / metabolism
  • Bone and Bones / physiology*
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Embryonic Stem Cells / cytology*
  • Embryonic Stem Cells / transplantation
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Mesenchymal Stem Cells / cytology
  • Mice
  • Mice, SCID
  • Osteogenesis / physiology
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Time Factors
  • Tissue Engineering / methods*
  • Tissue Scaffolds*