title: Human mesenchymal stem cells and biomaterials interaction: a promising synergy to improve spine fusion.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Spine fusion is the gold standard treatment in degenerative and traumatic spine diseases. The bone regenerative medicine needs (i) in vitro functionally active osteoblasts, and/or (ii) the in vivo induction of the tissue. The bone tissue engineering seems to be a very promising approach for the effectiveness of orthopedic surgical procedures, clinical applications are often hampered by the limited availability of bone allograft or substitutes. New biomaterials have been recently developed for the orthopedic applications. The main characteristics of these scaffolds are the ability to induce the bone tissue formation by generating an appropriate environment for (i) the cell growth and (ii) recruiting precursor bone cells for the proliferation and differentiation. A new prototype of biomaterials known as "bioceramics" may own these features. Bioceramics are bone substitutes mainly composed of calcium and phosphate complex salt derivatives.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, the characteristics bioceramics bone substitutes have been tested with human mesenchymal stem cells obtained from the bone marrow of adult orthopedic patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  These cellular models can be employed to characterize in vitro the behavior of different biomaterials, which are used as bone void fillers or three-dimensional scaffolds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Human mesenchymal stem cells in combination with biomaterials seem to be good alternative to the autologous or allogenic bone fusion in spine surgery. The cellular model used in our study is a useful tool for investigating cytocompatibility and biological features of HA-derived scaffolds.
authors.affiliation: Oncologic and Degenerative Spine Surgery Department, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, G C Pupilli 1, 40136 Bologna, Italy. giovanni.barbantibrodano@ior.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barbanti Brodano
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mazzoni
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tognon
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Griffoni
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manfrini
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D057005:Bioengineering / Q000379:methods; D018786:Bone Substitutes / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002516:Ceramics; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D013123:Spinal Fusion / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D018786:Bone Substitutes