Clinical methods for healing critical-sized defects (CSD) in bone remain less than satisfactory, therefore tissue engineering approaches have been employed to create improved treatment solutions for patients with CSDs. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are pluripotent cells that can differentiate into any cell type in the body in response to stimuli from chemical or mechanical microenvironmental cues. Recently, 3D synthetic polymers with high osteoconductivity such as poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) have been used in bone tissue engineering applications to drive the differentiation of stem cells. PLGA scaffolds provide the high mechanical strength necessary for bone development but lack osteoinductivity. To overcome this, PLGA scaffolds were seeded with human osteoblast cells, and after native bone ECM was deposited by these bone-forming cells, scaffolds were decellularized. hESCs were then placed on these scaffolds and differentiated towards bone lineage by the chemical signals provided from the ECM proteins and the mechanical stiffness in the PLGA.

Osteomimetic scaffolds for bone repair

245th National Meeting (2013)

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