Evaluation of bone quality of human dental pulp stem cells seeded on biomaterials with potential application in bone bioengineering

Abstract

Bone quality is determined by composition and bone structure that contributes to strength regardless of bone mineral density, which include: bone turnover (balance between bone formation and resorption) microarchitecture, mineralization, microdamages and composition of the organic and inorganic bone extracellular matrix (ECM). Tissue Bioengineering aims to develop new therapies that replace, restore or improve tissue function using the individual's own cells associated with suitable biomaterials and stimulating them with bioactive molecules to produce new tissue in vitro. In the Bioengineering bone context, bone quality is an important parameter to guide the development of in vitro systems capable of mimicking more and more bone tissue in vivo. Our group has evaluated the influence of MMPs and their inhibitors in modifying bone ECM composition for the induction of osteoblast differentiation in vitro from human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) as well as when seeded on the biomaterial collagen-chitosan. Our data indicate that they are differentially expressed during differentiation and modulating the ECM, thus leading to a possible change in bone architecture. This project aims to determine whether the modulation of the expression of MMPs, TIMPs and RECK, either by overexpression or gene silencing, during osteogenesis in vitro and in vivo from the seeded DPSCs on the blend of collagen type I / chitosan can change the parameters of bone quality.