Question

Find and summarize one specific application of IPCSs in bone tissue engineering. Your summary should include scaffold characteristics, scaffold manufacturing technique, development process of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSCs), how IPSCs response to these scaffolds, differentiation characteristics of IPCSc, how osteogenic differentiation is evaluated and general comments about potential usage of IPSCs in bone tissue engineering applications?

Answer 1

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSC) are produced by reprogramming the somatic cells by transduction wherein they are modified by introduction of several transcription factors turning them into potential pluripotent cells making them very useful in regenerative medicine.

The bone tissue was engineered using mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) too but they have low proliferation rate and it is hard to find autologous MSCs as their availability decreases with age. Now for the IPSC to differentiate into desired cells (in this case into osteoblasts and osteoblasts for bone regeneration) they require a base to grow and differentiate. It is provided artificially and it is called as scaffold. It acts as the extracellular matrix for the differentiating cells. The scaffolds are manufactured either with natural biomaterials like collagen or by synthetic materials like hydroxyapatite. They should be porous to support vascularisation, contain biomolecules that promote differentiation into cells of a particular lineage and support the differentiating cells. Usually gelatin and scaffolds made of nanomaterials are compatible with the IPSCs. They are directed towards specific differentiation by introduction of specific morphogenic proteins (in case of bones BMO2 is used). They are also treated with mineral components to enhance further differentiation and are tested for osteocalcin to confirm their proper differentiation. In this way IPSCs are proven to be very useful in bone tissue engineering as they are derived from the patient's stem cell itself ruling out any graft rejection amd can be easily differentiated into any cell of the body and a tissue can be constructed invivo and used for transplantation.