3D in-vitro cultures of human bone marrow and Wharton's jelly derived mesenchymal stromal cells show high chondrogenic potential

Erwin Pavel Lamparelli; Maria Camilla Ciardulli; Valentina Giudice; Pasqualina Scala; Rosa Vitolo; Tina Patricia Dale; Carmine Selleri; Nicholas Robert Forsyth; Nicola Maffulli; Giovanna Della Porta

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.986310

3D in-vitro cultures of human bone marrow and Wharton's jelly derived mesenchymal stromal cells show high chondrogenic potential

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Sep 26:10:986310. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.986310. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, University of Salerno, Baronissi, SA, Italy.
² Hematology and Transplant Center, University Hospital "San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi D'Aragona", Salerno, SA, Italy.
³ Guy Hilton Research Centre, School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering, Keele University, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, United Kingdom.
⁴ Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
⁵ Research Centre for Biomaterials BIONAM, Università di Salerno, Fisciano, SA, Italy.

Abstract

In this study, chondrogenic potentials of 3D high-density cultures of Bone Marrow (BM) and Wharton's Jelly (WJ)-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) was investigated by chondrogenesis- and cytokine-related gene expression over a 16-day culture period supplemented with human transforming growth factor (hTGF)-β1 at 10 ng/ml. In BM-MSC 3D models, a marked upregulation of chondrogenesis-related genes, such as SOX9, COL2A1, and ACAN (all p < 0.05) and formation of spherical pellets with structured type II collagen fibers were observed. Similarly, WJ-based high-density culture appeared higher in size and more regular in shape, with a significant overexpression of COL2A1 and ACAN (all p < 0.05) at day 16. Moreover, a similar upregulation trend was documented for IL-6 and IL-10 expression in both BM and WJ 3D systems. In conclusion, MSC-based high-density cultures can be considered a promising in vitro model of cartilage regeneration and tissue engineering. Moreover, our data support the use of WJ-MSCs as a valid alternative for chondrogenic commitment of stem cells in regenerative medicine.

Keywords: 3D cell culture; chondrogenesis; cytokines; hTGF-β1; human Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells; human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.