Spontaneous osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells on electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds

Abstract

In bone tissue engineering, stem cell-scaffold constructs play an important role in bone regeneration. Desirable biomimetic scaffolds that can facilitate the committed differentiation of stem cells into osteoblasts at high efficiency in the absence of inducing media are essentially useful for the application. In this study, we have investigated the potency of spontaneous osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on PHBV electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds loaded with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles, and studied the underlying mechanisms. By studying cell morphology and the cytoskeleton, as well as osteogenic marker gene expression, we found that MSCs cultured on the above-mentioned nanofibrous scaffolds could efficiently differentiate into osteoblasts in the absence of inducing media. Moreover, we examined the activity of several signaling pathways involved in osteoblast differentiation, including Wnt/β-catenin, BMP-Smad, and MAPK (ERK1/2 and p38) pathways. This study uncovers the regulatory mechanisms of MSC differentiation into osteoblasts stimulated by biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds, which will help understand bone tissue repair for therapeutic applications and optimize the biomaterial scaffolds.