Effect of Nano-HA/Collagen Composite Hydrogels on Osteogenic Behavior of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells

This study aimed to comparatively evaluate the in vitro effect of nanosized hydroxyapatite and collagen (nHA/COL) based composite hydrogels (with different ratios of nHA and COL) on the behavior of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), isolated from either adipose tissue (AT-MSCs) or bone marrow (BM-MSCs). We hypothesized that (i) nHA/COL composite hydrogels would promote the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs in an nHA concentration dependent manner, and that (ii) AT-MSCs would show higher osteogenic potential compared to BM-MSCs, due to their earlier observed higher proliferation and osteogenic differentiation potential in 2D in vitro cultures [1]. The obtained results indicated that AT-MSCs show indeed high proliferation, differentiation and mineralization capacities in nHA/COL constructs compared to BM-MSCs, but this effect was irrespective of nHA concentration. Based on the results of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and osteocalcin (OCN) protein level, the osteogenic differentiation of BM-MSCs started in the beginning of the culture period and for AT-MSCs at the end of the culture period. At a molecular level, both cell types showed high expression of osteogenic markers (bone morphogenic protein 2 [BMP2], runt-related transcription factor 2 [RUNX2], OCN or COL1) in both an nHA concentration and time dependent manner. In conclusion, AT-MSCs demonstrated higher osteogenic potential in nHA/COL based 3D micro-environments compared to BM-MSCs, in which proliferation and osteogenic differentiation were highly promoted in a time dependent manner, irrespective of nHA amount in the constructs. The fact that AT-MSCs showed high proliferation and mineralization potential is appealing for their application in future pre-clinical research as an alternative cell source for BM-MSCs.