Interfacing Sca-1pos Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Biocompatible Scaffolds with Different Chemical Composition and Geometry

• Main Authors: G. Forte, O. Franzese, S. Pagliari, F. Pagliari, A. M. Di Francesco, P. Cossa, A. Laudisi, R. Fiaccavento, M. Minieri, E. Bonmassar, P. Di Nardo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2009-01-01
• Series: Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/910610

An immortalized murine mesenchymal stem cell line (mTERT-MSC) enriched for Linneg/Sca-1pos fraction has been obtained through the transfection of MSC with murine TERT and single-cell isolation. Such cell line maintained the typical MSC self-renewal capacity and continuously expressed MSC phenotype. Moreover, mTERT-MSC retained the functional features of freshly isolated MSC in culture without evidence of senescence or spontaneous differentiation events. Thus, mTERT-MSC have been cultured onto PLA films, 30 and 100 μm PLA microbeads, and onto unpressed and pressed HYAFF-11 scaffolds. While the cells adhered preserving their morphology on PLA films, clusters of mTERT-MSC were detected on PLA beads and unpressed fibrous scaffolds. Finally, mTERT-MSC were not able to colonize the inner layers of pressed HYAFF-11. Nevertheless, such cell line displayed the ability to preserve Sca-1 expression and to retain multilineage potential when appropriately stimulated on all the scaffolds tested.