The role of demineralized bone particle in a PLGA scaffold designed to create a media equivalent for a tissue engineered blood vessel

Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is a copolymer used for scaffolds in tissue engineering due to its biodegradable and biocompatible properties. Demineralized bone particle (DBP) is a natural material containing bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs). The objective of this study was to determine if DBP induced differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into a smooth muscle cells (SMCs) phenotype and act in a similar manner when treated with TGF-β1 as SMCs under the same conditions. PLGA scaffolds were fabricated with or without DBP using the solvent casting/salt leaching technique. Proliferation of MSCs and SMCs was measured using the MTT assay, while the expression of the smooth muscle-specific markers α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), smooth muscle 22 alpha (SM22α), and calponin was measured using RT-PCR and western blotting. Results showed PLGA with DBP scaffolds increased cell proliferation of SMCs (1 and 3 days) and MSCs (3 and 7 days) compared to the PLGA only scaffolds. Smooth muscle-specific genes were significantly increased in SMCs cultured for 7 days on PLGA with DBP scaffolds compared to PLGA only scaffolds and were also significantly increased when used SMC medium containing TGF-β1. Interestingly, the smooth muscle-specific genes were not altered in MSCs by the addition of TGF-β1 to the PLGA with DBP. However, in the 6-well and PLGA only groups, TGF-β1 addition caused increased levels of SM22α and calponin mRNA. Western blotting results were similar to the mRNA levels. These results suggest that the cell growth and gene expression of SMCs were up-regulated by DBP and TGF-β1 in PLGA scaffold; however, they were inadequate for the shift of MSCs into a SMCs phenotype. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]