In Vivo Ectopic Bone Formation by Devitalized Mineralized Stem Cell Carriers Produced Under Mineralizing Culture Condition

Abstract Functionalization of tissue engineering scaffolds with in vitro–generated bone-like extracellular matrix (ECM) represents an effective biomimetic approach to promote osteogenic differentiation of stem cells in vitro. However, the bone-forming capacity of these constructs (seeded with or without cells) is so far not apparent. In this study, we aimed at developing a mineralizing culture condition to biofunctionalize three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffolds with highly mineralized ECM in order to produce devitalized, osteoinductive mineralized carriers for human periosteal-derived progenitors (hPDCs). For this, three medium formulations [i.e., growth medium only (BM1), with ascorbic acid (BM2), and with ascorbic acid and dexamethasone (BM3)] supplemented with calcium (Ca2+) and phosphate (PO43−) ions simultaneously as mineralizing source were investigated. The results showed that, besides the significant impacts on enhancing cell proliferation (the highest in BM3 condition), the formulated mineralizi...