| dc.description.abstract | Human bone derives from its cellular component, the osteoblast (OB) and its progenitor the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMMSC), could be affected by the surface and environment on which it was cultured. Although bone tissue is capable of regenerating after damage or injury, the quality of healing could vary and might result in poor function and outcome. Recently, a number of different methods to improve bone healing have been used, including inner/outer fixation and addition of inorganic crystals at the fracture site. However, if the injured surface/area is wide, or in the case of osteoporosis (OP) where bone resorption by osteoclasts (OCs) exceeds bone formation by OBs, the healing might still be compromised even with such augmentation to intrinsic capacity. Thus, the addition of OBs and progenitors to engineered biomaterials may be necessary to improve outcome in certain clinical conditions, including postmenopausal OP, which with the aging of the population is a clinical problem of epidemic proportions.
In the past few years, the field of adult stem cell research has been revolutionized with the discovery of plasticity. Key to determining the differentiation lineage is the microenvironment in which the stem cell resides in. While the majority of studies have focused on the effects of biochemical factors (i.e., growth factors, cytokines, drugs etc) on stem cell differentiation, it is now increasingly clear that tissue-engineered materials and physical factors might also exert important effects on cells.
In this study, we first isolated a population of multipotent cells from the human term placenta capable of differentiation into phenotypes of all three germ layers, including an osteoblastic phenotype. These placenta-derived multipotent cells (PDMCs) are abundant in numbers and can be obtained without the need of invasive procedures, unlike BMMSCs. Moreover, PDMCs possess significant immunosuppressive properties, which making these cells good candidates for therapeutic applications in an allogeneic setting.
The aim of our study is to discover how the osteoblastic differentiation capabilities of PDMCs are affected by using hydrostatic pressure. Our study showed that these cells provide an excellent source of OB progenitors and data from our study might have clinical therapeutic implications of OP.
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