Bone tissue engineering via human induced pluripotent, umbilical cord and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in rat cranium

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are an exciting cell source with great potential for tissue engineering. Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) are used in clinics but are limited by several disadvantages. Alternative sources of MSCs, such as umbilical cord MSCs (hUCMSCs), are being investigated. However, there has been no report comparing hiPSCs, hUCMSCs and hBMSCs for bone regeneration in vivo. This study investigated hiPSCs, hUCMSCs and hBMSCs in biofunctionalized macroporous calcium phosphate cement (CPC) scaffolds in rat cranial defects for the first time. At 12 weeks, new bone area fraction of hiPSC-MSC-CPC was (30.4 ± 5.8)%, 2.8-fold that of cell-free CPC control. Seeding with hiPSCs, hUCMSCs and hBMSCs in CPC greatly enhanced bone regeneration. Therefore, hiPSC-MSCs and hUCMSCs represented viable alternatives to hBMSCs, and biofunctionalized macroporous CPC was suitable for stem cell delivery and bone regeneration.102