Bone morphogenetic protein-7 promotes chondrogenesis in human amniotic epithelial cells

Abstract

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) play important roles at multiple stages of chondrogenesis. This study was undertaken to investigate the potential role of bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) in the differentiation of chondrocytes using tissue engineering techniques. The impact of BMP-7 on human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) was tested. The hAECs were treated either with recombinant human BMP-7 cDNA or with transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) as a positive control for three weeks in vitro. Cartilaginous differentiation and proliferation were assayed by quantitative RT-PCR, histology, and in situ hybridization. Our results were such that hAECs treated with either BMP-7 or TGF-β1 expressed cartilage markers (aggrecan, Sox9, CEP-68, and type II and X collagens) within three weeks. Compared with a control vector, BMP-7 induced a decrease in type I collagen expression, while the transcription of the cartilage-specific type II collagen remained stable. In induction experiments, BMP-7 transgenic hAECs exhibited the largest amount of matrix synthesis. In conclusion, these data indicate that BMP-7 plays an important role in inducing the production of cartilage by hAECs in vitro. Cartilage differentiation and matrix maturation can be promoted by BMPs in a cartilage engineering paradigm. These properties make BMPs promising tools in the engineering of cartilaginous joint bio-prostheses and as candidate biological agents or genes for cartilage stabilisation.

Comparative Investigation of Human Amniotic Epithelial Cells and Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Application in Bone Tissue Engineering

“…However, as multiple factors in the subcutaneous region could influence the fate of in vivo lineage commitment of progenitor cells, we did not further compare the in vivo osteogenic capacity using this ectopic osteogenesis model [ 27 , 49 , 50 ]. In fact, the osteogenic differentiation of hAECs, hAFMSCs, and hBMSCs has been investigated using various animal models in previous studies, which strongly confirmed the bone regenerative properties of all three cell sources in vivo [ 6 , 7 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 33 – 35 ]. These results as well as ours suggest that further studies compare the regenerative potential of hAECs with other stem cells in a larger animal model.…”

“…Particular attention has been directed to human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) as a source of progenitor cells of fetal origin with no ethical issue involvement. Previous and extensive studies have shown that amniotic epithelial cells from different species such as rat, sheep, and human possess combined qualities of both embryonic and adult stem cells and retain a remarkable plasticity [ 13 – 17 ]. HAECs have been shown to possess trilineage differentiation ability in vitro and express markers of both mesenchymal and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) [ 11 , 14 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…Previous and extensive studies have shown that amniotic epithelial cells from different species such as rat, sheep, and human possess combined qualities of both embryonic and adult stem cells and retain a remarkable plasticity [ 13 – 17 ]. HAECs have been shown to possess trilineage differentiation ability in vitro and express markers of both mesenchymal and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) [ 11 , 14 , 17 , 18 ]. In contrast to ESCs, hAECs have been shown to display a stable nontumorigenic phenotype, evidenced by several long-term in vivo transplantation experiments [ 11 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Proliferation and survival of human amniotic epithelial cells during their hepatic differentiation

“…They are capable to origin insulin secreting pancreatic β-islet like-cells [ 15 ], functional neurons and glia [ 16 – 18 ] and surfactant producing alveolar epithelial cells [ 19 , 20 ]. Several laboratories have also reported hepatic [ 20 – 23 ], cardiac [ 24 ], osteogenic [ 9 ], chondrogenic [ 25 ] and adipogenic [ 9 ] differentiation of hAECs. Among others attractive features for the clinic, the amniotic membrane promotes re-epithelization, inhibits angiogenesis, decreases inflammation and is used in ocular surface reconstruction and in wounds healing [ 26 ].…”

Effects of Angelicae Pubescentis and Loranthi Decotion on repairing knee joint cartilages in rats

“…The modern pharmacological studies showed that APLD could protect the subchondral bone structure from collagen-induced arthritis in rat models [ 10 ], the increase of the extract concentration of APLD led to the increased activity of cartilage cells, and APLD could inhibit the apoptosis of chondrocytes through the expression of mitochondrial factor caspase-3 and caspase-9 [ 11 – 13 ]. In our previous study of serum containing APLD, we successfully inducted the amniotic cells as seed cells to differentiate into chondrocytes [ 14 ].…”