Perfusion culture of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) seeded in biomaterial scaffolds provides nutrients for cell survival, enhances extracellular matrix deposition, and increases osteogenic cell differentiation. However, there is no consensus on the appropriate perfusion duration of cellular constructs in vitro to boost their bone forming capacity in vivo. We investigated this phenomenon by culturing human MSCs in macroporous composite scaffolds in a direct perfusion bioreactor and compared their response to scaffolds in continuous dynamic culture conditions on an XYZ shaker. Cell seeding in continuous perfusion bioreactors resulted in more uniform MSC distribution than static seeding. We observed similar calcium deposition in all composite scaffolds over 21 days of bioreactor culture, regardless of pore size. Compared to scaffolds in dynamic culture, perfused scaffolds exhibited increased DNA content and expression of osteogenic markers up to 14 days in culture that plateaued thereafter. We then evaluated the effect of perfusion culture duration on bone formation when MSC-seeded scaffolds were implanted in a murine ectopic site. Human MSCs persisted in all scaffolds at 2 weeks in vivo, and we observed increased neovascularization in constructs cultured under perfusion for 7 days relative to those cultured for 1 day within each gender. At 8 weeks post-implantation, we observed greater bone volume fraction, bone mineral density, tissue ingrowth, collagen density, and osteoblastic markers in bioreactor constructs cultured for 14 days compared to those cultured for 1 or 7 days, and acellular constructs. Taken together, these data demonstrate that culturing MSCs under perfusion culture for at least 14 days in vitro improves the quantity and quality of bone formation in vivo. This study highlights the need for optimizing in vitro bioreactor culture duration of engineered constructs to achieve the desired level of bone formation.

Hyperglycemia-mediated, nonenzymatic collagen cross-links such as pentosidine (PENT) can have deleterious effects on cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM). Present techniques to quantify PENT are limited, motivating the need for improved methods to study the accumulation and contribution of PENT toward diabetic clinical challenges such as impaired bone healing. Current methods for studying PENT are destructive, laborious, and frequently employ oversimplified collagen films that lack the complexity of the native ECM. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the capacity of time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy (TRFS) to detect PENT in cell-secreted ECMs possessing enhanced compositional complexity. To demonstrate an application of this method, we assessed the response of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to cross-linked substrates to explore the role of detected PENT on osteogenic differentiation. We exposed MSC-secreted decellularized matrices (DMs) to 0.66 M ribose for 2 weeks and used TRFS to detect the accumulation of PENT. Ribose treatment resulted in a 30 nm blue shift in peak fluorescence emission and a significant decrease in average lifetime compared to that of control DMs (4.4 ± 0.3 ns vs 3.5 ± 0.09 ns). Evaluation of samples with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) confirmed that changes in observed fluorescence were due to PENT accumulation. A strong correlation was found between TRFS parameters and the HPLC measurement of PENT, validating the use of TRFS as an alternative method of PENT detection. Osteoblastic gene expression was significantly reduced in MSCs seeded on ribose DMs at days 7 and 14. However, no significant differences in calcium deposition were detected between control and ribose DMs. These data demonstrate the efficacy of nondestructive fluorescence spectroscopy to examine the formation of nonenzymatic collagen cross-links within biomimetic culture platforms and showcase one example where an improved biomimetic substrate can be used to probe cell-ECM interactions in the presence of collagen cross-links.

Prior to transplantation, mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) can be induced toward the osteoblastic phenotype using a cocktail of soluble supplements. However, there is little evidence of differentiated MSCs directly participating in bone formation, suggesting that MSCs may either die or revert in phenotype upon transplantation. Cell-secreted decellularized extracellular matrices (DMs) are a promising platform to confer bioactivity and direct cell fate through the presentation of a complex and physiologically relevant milieu. Therefore, we examined the capacity of biomimetic DMs to preserve the mineral-producing phenotype upon withdrawal of the induction stimulus. Regardless of induction duration, ranging up to 6 weeks, MSCs exhibited up to a 5-fold reduction in osteogenic markers within 24 h following stimulus withdrawal. We show that seeding osteogenically induced MSCs on DMs yields up to 2-fold more calcium deposition than tissue culture plastic, and this improvement is at least partially mediated by increasing actin cytoskeletal tension via the ROCK II pathway. MSCs on DMs also secreted 25% more vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a crucial endogenous proangiogenic factor that is abrogated during MSC osteogenic differentiation. The deployment of DMs into a subcutaneous ectopic site enhanced the persistence of MSCs 5-fold, vessel density 3-fold, and bone formation 2-fold more than MSCs delivered without DMs. These results underscore the need for deploying MSCs using biomaterial platforms such as DMs to preserve the in vitro-acquired mineral-producing phenotype and accelerate the process of bone repair.

Lysyl oxidase (LOX)-mediated collagen crosslinking can regulate osteoblastic phenotype and enhance mechanical properties of tissues, both areas of interest in bone tissue engineering. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2) on osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) cultured in perfusion bioreactors, enzymatic collagen crosslink formation in the extracellular matrix (ECM), and mechanical properties of engineered bone grafts. Exogenous LOXL2 to MSCs seeded in composite scaffolds under perfusion culture for up to 28 days is administered. Constructs treated with LOXL2 appear brown in color and possess greater DNA content and osteogenic potential measured by a twofold increase in bone sialoprotein gene expression. Collagen expression of LOXL2-treated scaffolds is lower than untreated controls. Functional outputs such as calcium deposition, osteocalcin expression, and compressive modulus are unaffected by LOXL2 supplementation. Excitingly, LOXL2-treated constructs contain 1.8- and 1.4-times more pyridinoline (PYD) crosslinks per mole of collagen and per wet weight, respectively, than untreated constructs. Despite these increases, compressive moduli of LOXL2-treated constructs are similar to untreated constructs over the 28-day culture duration. This is the first report of LOXL2 application to engineered, three-dimensional bony constructs. The results suggest a potentially new strategy for engineering osteogenic grafts with a mature ECM by modulating crosslink formation.

We investigate the use of a fiber-based, multispectral fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm) system to nondestructively monitor changes in mechanical properties of collagen hydrogels caused by controlled application of widely used cross-linking agents, glutaraldehyde (GTA) and ribose. Postcross-linking, fluorescence lifetime images are acquired prior to the hydrogels being processed by rheological or tensile testing to directly probe gel mechanical properties. To preserve the sterility of the ribose-treated gels, FLIm is performed inside a biosafety cabinet (BSC). A pairwise correlation analysis is used to quantify the relationship between mean hydrogel fluorescence lifetimes and the storage or Young's moduli of the gels. In the GTA study, we observe strong and specific correlations between fluorescence lifetime and the storage and Young's moduli. Similar correlations are not observed in the ribose study and we postulate a reason for this. Finally, we demonstrate the ability of FLIm to longitudinally monitor dynamic cross-link formation. The strength of the GTA correlations and deployment of our fiber-based FLIm system inside the aseptic environment of a BSC suggests that this technique may be a valuable tool for the tissue engineering community where longitudinal assessment of tissue construct maturation in vitro is highly desirable.