Although a wide variety of biomaterials have been already proposed for use in bone tissue engineering, there is still need for man-made materials, which would combine support for osteogenesis with simplicity desirable for upscaling and costs reduction. In this study we have shown that synthetic calcite may serve as a scaffold for human osteoblasts transplantation. A simple dynamic system allows uniform and effective cell distribution. Cell viability and osteogenic phenotype were confirmed by XTT assay, alkaline phosphatase activity and selected osteoblast-specific genes expression. Extracellular matrix deposited by cells improved elasticity and made the whole system similar to the flexible composite material rather than to the brittle ceramic implants. It was revealed in the compression tests and also by the improved samples handling. Subcutaneous implantation of the cell-seeded calcite scaffolds to immunodeficient mice resulted in mineralized bone formation, which was confirmed histologically and by EPR analysis. The latter we propose as a method supplementary to histological analysis, for bone regeneration investigations. It specifically confirms the presence of bone mineral with a unique sensitivity and using bulk samples, which eliminates the risk of missing the material in the preparation. Our study resulted in development of a new osteogenic tissue engineered product based on man-made calcite.
Keywords: Bone tissue engineering; Human primary osteoblasts; Scaffold; Synthetic calcite.