Bone Formation in a Scaffold Composed of Cylindrical Hydroxyapatite and Tryptophan- or Lysine-Coated Sponge <i>in Vivo</i>

Abstract

Because of the three-dimensional structure of bone or hard tissue such as a tooth, a scaffold is necessary for its regeneration by cellular engineering. Commonly, for in vivo examination, hydroxyapatite (HA) has been used as such a scaffold. Cylindrical HA with a hollow center, which included a columnar formalin-treated polyvinyl alcohol sponge, was used in this examination as a scaffold. The sponge had been coated with L-tryptophan or L-lysine before insertion into the hollow center of the HA. Rat bone marrow cells (rBMCs) derived from the femur were seeded in the sponge before insertion into the hollow center of HA. The number of rBMCs seeded in each sponge was 1.5 × 106. These scaffolds were implanted subcutaneously into the backs of Fischer 344 rats for 6 weeks. In the amino-acid-coated sponge in HA, osteogenesis was found histologically. An osteocalcin level of approximately 10 ug was measured in the scaffolds with L-tryptophan-coated formalized poly-vinyl alcohol sponge containing rBMCs, 4 ug on average in the scaffolds with L-lysine-coated sponge containing the cells and about 2 ug in each scaffold with uncoated sponge containing the cells. The structure of the scaffolds used in this study was thought to be suitable for osteogenesis by rBMCs. It was concluded that tryptophan, as a factor for bone formation by stem cells, functioned by promoting cell adhesion and the differentiation of stem cells into osteoblasts.