The calcification potential of human MSCs can be enhanced by interleukin-1β in osteogenic medium

Inflammation is one of the key regulators of the repair process in bone tissues. Current data about the effect of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) on MSCs and osteoblasts are conflicting. We investigated the long-term effect of IL-1β on direct osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs in vitro. IL-1β-stimulated cells showed enhanced proliferation and entered maturation prior to non-stimulated ones, as monitored by ALP activity. The process of calcification was accelerated during long-term stimulation of hMSCs with IL-1β. Since donor variability is a well-known issue, we suggest a new method to illustrate global changes of a random chosen donor population through collative analysis. We further demonstrate an absorbance assay to evaluate the degree of calcification during in vitro culture of monolayer expanded hMSCs. Our findings support the importance of IL-1β in osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs in an in vitro monolayer culture model. A new online absorbance assay is a useful method to evaluate the osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs at early stages. These findings will be helpful in optimizing predifferentiation of hMSCs in vitro for bone tissue engineering. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.