Three-dimensional in vitro tri-culture platform to investigate effects of crosstalk between mesenchymal stem cells, osteoblasts, and adipocytes.

ABSTRACT: The bone marrow niche for mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) contains different amounts of bone and fat that vary with age and certain pathologies. How this dynamic niche environment may affect their differentiation potential and/or healing properties for clinical applications remains unknown, largely due to the lack of physiologically relevant in vitro models. We developed an enabling platform to isolate and study effects of signaling interactions between tissue-scale, laminated hydrogel modules of multiple cell types in tandem. We applied this platform to co- and tri-culture of primary human MSCs, osteoblasts, and adipocytes over 18 days in vitro. Each cell type was analyzed separately with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and histochemistry for several mesenchymal lineage marker

SUBMITTER: Hammoudi TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3419849 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature