Induction of Bone Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Form Osteoblast on Alginate Gels

Bio-material is a key factor in bone tissue engineering. The biological effects of a new bio-material, alginate gels, on bone mesenchymal stem cells (bMSCs) were investigated. bMSCs were induced to form osteoblasts on alginate gels. Cell growth, appearance and calcification were detected by MTT, toluidine blue stain and von Kossa stain, respectively. Osteoblast related genes were examined by RT-PCR. It is found that bMSCs on the alginate gels (experimental group) grew well and formed obvious colony. The genes related with osteoblast (alkaline phosphatase, collagen I and osteocalcin) were positive both in the experimental group and the control group (bMSCs on tissue culture plastic), moreover, the expression levels in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group. The results show that alginate gels can promote bMSCs to differentiate into osteoblasts. This suggests that alginate gels may act as a favourable scaffold in bone tissue engineering.