Ex vivo bone morphogenetic protein-2 gene delivery using gingival fibroblasts promotes bone regeneration in rats
Joong-Ho Shin1, Kyoung-Hwa Kim, Su-Hwan Kim
1Department of Periodontology and Dental Research Institute, School of Dentistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Aim:
The aim of the present study was to investigate bone regeneration following ex vivo bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) gene delivery using human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) in rat calvarial defects.
Materials And Methods:
An 8 mm craniotomy defect was created in Sprague-Dawley rats. The animals were divided into four groups: (1) non-grafted group, the defect was left empty; (2) collagen matrix group, the defect was filled with collagen matrix only; (3) HGF group, the defect was filled with non-transduced HGFs on collagen matrix; (4) BMP-2/HGF group, the defect was filled with BMP-2 gene-transduced HGFs on collagen matrix. Animals were sacrificed at 2 and 4 weeks after surgery, and micro-computed tomographic and histologic observations were performed.
Results:
The BMP-2/HGF group showed promoted osseous healing of calvarial defects, as compared with the other groups. At both 2 and 4 weeks, regenerated bone area was significantly greater in the BMP-2/HGF group than the other three groups. Quite a few number of transplanted HGFs were observed within the regenerated bone tissues.
Conclusions:
The results of this study suggest that ex vivo BMP-2 gene delivery induces prominent bone regeneration in vivo and HGFs may be useful as target cells for ex vivo gene therapy.
