Subchondral bone repair potential of an osteochondral scaffold augmented with BMP-2 or strontium-enriched amorphous calcium phosphate: a co-culture <i>in vitro</i> model

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Purpose A collagen/collagen-magnesium-hydroxyapatite (Col/Col-Mg-HA) scaffold is currently used in the clinical practice to address osteochondral lesions (OCL). However, suboptimal bone regeneration still limits its overall reparative potential. The aim of this study was to test in vitro the osteoinductive potential of two different augmentation strategies: the addition of Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2) or the incorporation of strontium ions-enriched amorphous calcium phosphate (Sr-ACP) granules. Methods Human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were seeded on the differently modified scaffolds and unmodified material used as a control, and grown for 14 days in a co-culture system in the presence of primary osteoclasts and conditioned medium of endothelial cells. The potential of the BMP-2- and Sr-ACP-enriched scaffolds compared to the control was then evaluated in terms of MSCs adhesion and morphology, metabolic activity, osteogenic differentiation, and osteoclasts' markers expression. Results Morphologically, both modified scaffolds sustained good cell adhesion. More secreted matrix was observed on the BMP-2 scaffold, together with higher metabolic activity and an upregulation of most of the evaluated osteoblast-related genes compared to the control and the Sr-ACP scaffold. Conversely, in the presence of the Sr-ACP scaffold, lower metabolic activity and a slower activation

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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