Vascular development has a great significance in the osteogenic process and in bone tissue engineering (BTE). BTE is based on various combinations of three principal types of components: biomaterials as scaffolds, regulatory signals and cells. The aim of our study was to evaluate, at gene expression and histological level, the effect of BTE triad components on the vascularization process in an ectopic bone-forming model in mice. Bone mineral matrix (BMM) was used as a scaffold and a carrier, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) as a source of regulatory signals and adipose stem cells (ASCs) as a source of cells for endothelial differentiation, in order to show how and to what extent the biological enrichment of BMM influences the outcome of the osteogenic process and its key precondition, vascularization. Implants composed of BMM, PRP and ASCs in vitro induced into endothelial cells (EPB implants) and implants composed of BMM and PRP (PB implants) were compared with implants composed of BMM only (B implants). More pronounced endothelialrelated gene expression and stronger VCAM-1 (vascular cell adhesion molecule-1) immunoexpression were observed in EPB implants in comparison with PB and B ones at later time points of the in vivo experimental period. Osteopontin gene expression and immunoexpression of osteopontin were significantly higher in EPB compared to PB and B implants. Therefore, addition of ASCs combined with PRP to BMM improved the vascularization process in the ectopic boneforming model, which makes this BTE composition the most favourable among the examined types of implants for application in BTE.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.