title: Tissue-engineered rabbit cranial suture from autologous fibroblasts and BMP2.
abstract: Craniosynostosis is a congenital disorder of premature ossification of cranial sutures, occurring in one of approximately every 2500 live human births. This work addressed a hypothesis that a cranial suture can be tissue-engineered from autologous cells. Dermal fibroblasts were isolated subcutaneously from growing rabbits, culture-expanded, and seeded in a gelatin scaffold. We fabricated a composite tissue construct by sandwiching the fibroblast-seeded gelatin scaffold between two collagen sponges loaded with recombinant human BMP2. Surgically created, full-thickness parietal defects were filled with the composite tissue construct in the same rabbits from which dermal fibroblasts had been obtained. After four-week in vivo implantation, there was de novo formation of tissue-engineered cranial suture, microscopically reminiscent of the adjacent natural cranial suture. The tissue-engineered cranial suture showed radiolucency on radiographic images, in contrast to radio-opacity of microscopically ossified calvarial defects filled with fibroblast-free, BMP2-loaded constructs. This approach may be refined for tissue engineering of cranial sutures for craniosynostosis patients.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Orthodontic, Bioengineering, and Anatomy, University of Illinois at Chicago, MC 841, 801 South Paulina Street, Chicago, IL 60612-7211, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Mao
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D003094:Collagen; D003393:Cranial Sutures; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000187:drug effects; D005780:Gelatin; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010006:Osteoblasts; D011817:Rabbits; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology; D012886:Skull / Q000601:surgery; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D016378:Tissue Transplantation; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: C525718:BMP2 protein, human; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; C499469:recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2; D005780:Gelatin; D003094:Collagen