Restoration of murine femoral segmental defect using CTGF-overexpressing MC3T3-E1 cells

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is a member of the CCN super family and is reported to widely participate in bone development and regeneration. This study aimed to restore murine femoral segmental defect using CTGF-overexpressing MC3T3-E1 cells. MC3T3-E1 cells were transinfected by lenti-CTGF (LvCTGF) and lenti-negative control (LvNC) virus to obtain stably transinfected cells. Real-time PCR, Western blot, alkaline phosphatase activity assay, and alizarin red staining demonstrated that the overexpression of CTGF enhanced osteogenesis in vitro. Cell migration assay results showed that LvCTGF cells expressed higher migration ability than LvNC cells, while CCK-8 assay revealed no significant difference in cell proliferation. The LvCTGF and LvNC cells were then seeded into a chitosan/β-TCP scaffold and were used to restore a murine femoral segmental defect. Samples were harvested by the end of 2 and 5 weeks respectively. Micro-CT analysis and Masson's trichrome staining results showed that the LvCTGF-scaffold group expressed better bone healing compared with the LvNC-scaffold and scaffold-only groups. CTGF-overexpressed cells serve as an efficient source of seeding cells for bone regeneration.