Directed migration of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in a physiological direct current electric field

Abstract

At sites of bone fracture, naturally-occurring electric fi elds (EFs) exist during healing and may guide cell migration. In this study, we investigated whether EFs could direct the migration of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs), which are known to be key players in bone formation. Human BM-MSCs were cultured in direct current EFs of 10 to 600 mV/mm. Using time-lapse microscopy, we demonstrated that an EF directed migration of BM-MSCs mainly to the anode. Directional migration occurred at a low threshold and with a physiological EF of ~25 mV/mm. Increasing the EF enhanced the MSC migratory response. The migration speed peaked at 300 mV/mm, at a rate of 42 ±1 μm/h, around double the control (no EF) migration rate. MSCs showed sustained response to prolonged EF application in vitro up to at least 8 h. The electrotaxis of MSCs with either early (P3-P5) or late (P7-P10) passage was also investigated. Migration was passage-dependent with higher passage number showing reduced directed migration, within the range of passages examined. An EF of 200 mV/mm for 2 h did not affect cell senescence, phenotype, or osteogenic potential of MSCs, regardless of passage number within the range tested (P3-P10). Our fi ndings indicate that EFs are a powerful cue in directing migration of human MSCs in vitro. An applied EF may be useful to control or enhance migration of MSCs during bone healing.

Fighting for territories: time-lapse analysis of dental pulp and dental follicle stem cells in co-culture reveals specific migratory capabilities

“…SFRP1 expression in DFSC was not altered when DFSC were co-cultured with various ratios of DPSC, indicating that DFSC retain their potential to form periodontal tissues in the presence of DPSC. Recent studies have shown that ADAM28 overexpression has opposite effects on DPSC and DFSC: ADAM28 promotes proliferation of DFSC , while it inhibits proliferation and induces differentiation of DPSC (Zhao et al, 2011b). In co-cultures, ADAM28 expression was increased dramatically in both DFSC and DPSC, indicating that the proliferative potential resides within DFSC.…”

“…DPSC and DFSC motion was tortuous, probably due to the frequent reversals in directions caused by successive protrusions with opposing orientations. Reduction of direction reversals makes cell movement less tortuous and cells adopt an oriented trajectory towards a chemical or electric signal (Aman and Piotrowski, 2010;Arocena et al, 2010;Zhao et al, 2011a). Indeed, the co-culture of DPSC and DFSC stimulated their migration abilities, particularly when these two stem cell populations were seeded in equal cell numbers.…”

Helical Conformation Endows Poly-<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">l</span>-Lactic Acid Fibers with a Piezoelectric Charge under Tensile Stress

“…Some clinical studies and animal experiments have suggested enhancement of ossification by electrical stimulation [1,7,11,26,32,36,40]. In order to elucidate the mechanisms of electric-field stimulation on osteoprogenitor cells, many in vitro studies have applied direct electrical currents [8,12,29,37,41], capacitive coupling of electric fields [16,28,42] and inductive coupling of electric fields [9,19]. Ochi et al showed that the bone contact ratio around a dental implant inserted in the rabbit femur was almost 70% when capacitive coupling of electric fields (60 kHz, 10 Vp-p, sine wave signals) was applied for 8 hr/day over 14 days [32].…”

Tissue Guided Regeneration with Platelet Rich Plasma and Resorptive Collagen Membrane in Case of Chronic Osteomyelitis of Tibia

“…With a mechanical barrier, in this case collagen resorbable membrane, we prevent fibroblasts and other soft tissue cells to prematurely in grow into the bone defect area, since it is known that cells with osteogenic potential migrate more slowly [10]. Allogeneic platelet gel, which represents a source of growth factor, was proven to be just as efficient and safe to use as autologous for the regeneration of defects of long bones [8,11].…”

“…Out of heterologous material, the most investigated is bovine, but also porcine bone grafts are in use. The aim of tissue engineering is to provide better materials and its efficiency with less side effects [14,15] The essential idea of this therapy was to combine the healing capacities of platelet-derived growth factors and osteogenic stem cells and the modeling capacity of the gel [3,6,10,14] …”