Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for 3D Bone Tissue Engineering

INTRODUCTION Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells (hUCMSCs), isolated from the Wharton’s Jelly of umbilical cords, have recently shown the capacity to differentiate into multiple cell lineages in all three embryonic germ layers. They share similar surface markers with hBMSCs, such as CD73, CD90, and CD105, but have particular advantages such as extensive availability and supply, no donor site morbidity, and accelerated proliferation for in vitro expansion. The osteogenic differentiation of hUCMSCs in monolayer culture has been reported, while differentiation in three-dimensional biomaterials has not yet been reported for bone tissue engineering. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and optimal conditions for using hUCMSCs for bone tissue engineering. Cells seeded into Poly (L-lactic acid, PLLA) scaffolds were incubated with conditioned media (CM) or osteogenic media (OM) followed by incubation with a mineralization medium (MM) with or without an insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I to determine the optimal conditions to induce osteogenesis in hUCMSCs.