A Comparison of Bone Marrow and Cord Blood Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Cartilage Self-Assembly

Abstract

Joint injury is a common cause of premature retirement for the human and equine athlete alike. Implantation of engineered cartilage offers the potential to increase the success rate of surgical intervention and hasten recovery times. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a particularly attractive cell source for cartilage engineering. While bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) have been most extensively characterized for musculoskeletal tissue engineering, studies suggest that cord blood MSCs (CB-MSCs) may elicit a more robust chondrogenic phenotype. The objective of this study was to determine a superior equine MSC source for cartilage engineering. MSCs derived from bone marrow or cord blood were stimulated to undergo chondrogenesis through aggregate redifferentiation and used to generate cartilage through the self-assembling process. The resulting neocartilage produced from either BM-MSCs or CB-MSCs was compared by measuring mechanical, biochemical, and histological properties. We found that while BM constructs possessed higher tensile properties and collagen content, CB constructs had superior compressive properties comparable to that of native tissue and higher GAG content. Moreover, CB constructs had alkaline phosphatase activity, collagen type X, and collagen type II on par with native tissue suggesting a more hyaline cartilage-like phenotype. In conclusion, while both BM-MSCs and CB-MSCs were able to form neocartilage, CB-MSCs resulted in tissue more closely resembling native equine articular cartilage as determined by a quantitative functionality index. Therefore, CB-MSCs are deemed a superior source for the purpose of articular cartilage self-assembly.

Chondrogenic and BMP-4 primings confer osteogenesis potential to human cord blood mesenchymal stromal cells delivered with biphasic calcium phosphate ceramics

“…A stark difference in the chondrogenic potential of BMSCs and CBMSCs was observed in vitro, whereby significantly higher Alcian blue staining was observed in CBMSC compared to BMSC pellets. This has not been reported previously in the typical chondrogenic pellet tri-lineage protocols, however it is in line with recent observations that CBMSCs form cartilage in vitro that is more histologically and mechanically equivalent to native cartilage compared to that formed by BMSCs 29 and that unprimed CBMSCs formed significantly higher quantities of cartilage in vivo compared with BMSCs in a ceramic-based assay similar to the current study 30 . Together, these suggest that CBMSCs may be superior for cartilage regeneration applications compared with BMSCs, which warrants further investigation.…”

Challenges and Controversies in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy

“…Further randomized controlled trials are definitely required to estimate the potential of MSCs in cartilage repair and to evaluate advantages and disadvantages of stem cell treatment. Several experiments done in animal models of knee OA have shown that MSC therapy may delay progressive degeneration of the joint [79, 80]. In a rabbit model, it was demonstrated that single intra-articular infusion of synovial MSCs into the knee leads to cellular adherence close to meniscal defect and supported meniscal regeneration [81].…”

Progress in Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering: A Review on Therapeutic Cells and Macromolecular Scaffolds

“…Another study also shows the in vitro cultured ADMSCs can form colonies via rapid proliferation . 3) MSCs are considered to possess multidirectional differentiation capacity, including osteogenesis, chondrogenesis . The ADMSCs in collagen‐based hydrogel can undergo the differentiation into chondrocytes and form tissue engineered cartilage .…”