Comparing various off-the-shelf methods for bone tissue engineering in a large-animal ectopic implantation model: Bone marrow, allogeneic bone marrow stromal cells, and platelet gel

Construction of bone grafts for regenerative medicine would highly benefit from off-the-shelf components, such as allogeneic bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and blood-derived growth factors from platelet concentrate. Although allogeneic BMSCs are considered immunosuppressive, their use in transplantation studies is still cautioned. In this study, we used off-the-shelf goat allogeneic BMSCs, per-operatively aspirated bone marrow (BM) and platelet gel (PLG). Ten goats received six different hybrid constructs consisting of biphasic calcium phosphate scaffolds seeded with PLG or plasma that were mixed with BM, allogeneic BMSCs or left without cells. All constructs were implanted in the paraspinal muscles for 9 weeks. Fluorochromes were administered at 2, 3, and 5 weeks to assess onset of bone formation. Analysis revealed that the scaffolds without cells yielded small amounts of bone. Allogeneic BMSCs had a positive effect on the amount and early onset of bone formation. Fresh BM did not enhance ectopic bone formation. The PLG, which contained higher levels of transforming growth factor beta than plasma, did not result in more bone either. Fluorochrome incorporation results indicate that the presence of seeded cells in the constructs accelerates bone formation. This study shows a potential role of allogeneic BMSCs in bone tissue-engineering research.