Promoting Effect of Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor in Synovial Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Cartilage Regeneration.

Gensuke Okamura
Kosuke Ebina
Makoto Hirao
Ryota Chijimatsu
Yasukazu Yonetani
Yuki Etani
Akira Miyama
Kenji Takami
Atsushi Goshima
Hideki Yoshikawa
Takuya Ishimoto
Takayoshi Nakano
Masayuki Hamada
Takashi Kanamoto
Ken Nakata

Synovial mesenchymal stem cell (SMSC) is the promising cell source of cartilage regeneration but has several issues to overcome such as limited cell proliferation and heterogeneity of cartilage regeneration ability. Previous reports demonstrated that basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) can promote proliferation and cartilage differentiation potential of MSCs in vitro, although no reports show its beneficial effect in vivo. The purpose of this study is to investigate the promoting effect of bFGF on cartilage regeneration using human SMSC in vivo. SMSCs were cultured with or without bFGF in a growth medium, and 2 × 105 cells were aggregated to form a synovial pellet. Synovial pellets were implanted into osteochondral defects induced in the femoral trochlea of severe combined immunodeficient mice, and histological evaluation was performed after eight weeks. The presence of implanted SMSCs was confirmed by the observation of human vimentin immunostaining-positive cells. Interestingly, broad lacunae structures and cartilage substrate stained by Safranin-O were observed only in the bFGF (+) group. The bFGF (+) group had significantly higher O'Driscoll scores in the cartilage repair than the bFGF (-) group. The addition of bFGF to SMSC growth culture may be a useful treatment option to promote cartilage regeneration in vivo.

International journal of molecular sciences

22

1

10.3390/ijms22010300

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22010300
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33396695
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7796036