Influence of co-culture on osteogenesis and angiogenesis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and aortic endothelial cells

• DOI: 10.1016/j.mvr.2016.06.005
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02T03:59:10Z
• Authors: Gorke Gurel Pekozer; Gamze Torun Kose; Vasif Hasirci
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; Bone Matrix; Endothelial Cells; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Neovascularization, Physiologic; Bone Marrow Cells; Cell Differentiation; Mesenchymal Stem Cells; Cell Communication; Alkaline Phosphatase; Coculture Techniques; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; 03 medical and health sciences; Calcification, Physiologic; Phenotype; Osteogenesis; Animals; Cell Lineage; Aorta; Cells, Cultured; Cell Proliferation

Co-culture of bone forming cells and endothelial cells to induce pre-vascularization is one of the strategies used to solve the insufficient vascularization problem in bone tissue engineering attempts. In the study, primary cells isolated from 2 different tissues of the same animal, rat bone marrow stem cells (RBMSCs) and rat aortic endothelial cells (RAECs) were co-cultured to study the effects of co-culturing on both osteogenesis and angiogenesis. The formation of tube like structure in 2D culture was observed for the first time in the literature by the co-culture of primary cells from the same animal and also osteogenesis and angiogenesis were investigated at the same time by using this co-culture system. Co-cultured cells mineralized and formed microvasculature beginning from 14days of incubation. After 28days of incubation in the osteogenic medium, expression of osteogenic genes in co-cultures was significantly upregulated compared to RBMSCs cultured alone. These results suggest that the co-culture of endothelial cells with mesenchymal stem cells induces both osteogenesis and angiogenesis.