The osteogenic potential of pseudoarthrosis tissue and bone from human scaphoid non-unions

Scaphoid fractures have the highest prevalence of non-union in the human body, but little is known about the osteogenic potential of cells at the pseudoarthrosis. It was our goal to determine whether cells isolated from non-unions could be stimulated to differentiate into osteoblasts and produce bone in vitro. Fifteen human scaphoid non-unions were excised during surgery and bone from either side of the non-union and the fibrocartilagenous central regions were harvested. Osteoblastic populations were subcultured from these. The number of bone nodules (colonies of osteoblast cells that produced bone) from all three regions was similar to the number of nodules derived from iliac bone cultures from the same patients. Treatment of cells with rhBMP-2 resulted in a 3- to 10-fold increase in bone nodule formation in vitro from cells derived from the non-unions. These data demonstrate that cells at the pseudoarthrosis have osteogenic capability and can be stimulated by rhBMP-2, possibly increasing the ability to heal.