Comparison between curcumin and all-trans retinoic acid in the osteogenic differentiation of mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

The use of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) has great potential in cell therapy, particularly in the orthopedic field. BMSCs represent a valuable renewable cell source that have been successfully utilized to treat damaged skeletal tissue and bone defects. BMSCs can be induced to differentiate into osteogenic lineages via the addition of inducers to the growth medium. The present study examined the effects of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and curcumin on the osteogenic differentiation of mouse BMSCs. Morphological changes, the expression levels of the bone-associated gene markers bone morphogenetic protein 2, runt-related transcription factor and osterix during differentiation, an in vitro mineralization assay, and changes in osteocalcin expression revealed that curcumin supplementation promoted the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. By contrast, the application of ATRA increased osteogenic differentiation during the early stages, but during the later stages, it decreased the mineralization of differentiated cells. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to examine the effect of curcumin on the osteogenic potency of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) after reprogramming with human lim mineralization protein (hLMP-3), which is a positive osteogenic regulator. The results revealed that curcumin-supplemented culture medium increased hLMP-3 osteogenic potency compared with that of MEFs cultured in the non-supplemented medium. The present results demonstrate that enrichment of the osteogenic culture medium with curcumin, a natural osteogenic inducer, increased the osteogenic differentiation capacity of BMSCs as well as that of MEFs reprogrammed with hLMP-3.