Culture of Human Primary Bone Cells and Phenotype Assessment

Bone engineering scaffolds and biomimetic substitutes are currently the leading techniques to repair and regenerate bone defects. Ideally, bone grafts should imitate the structure and properties of bone extracellular matrix, house osteoprogenitor cells, and provide all the necessary environmental cues to orchestrate the functions of osteoblast and osteoclast cells. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for preclinical models based on in vitro bone-derived cell cultures for screening of novel biomaterials. In this chapter, we provide the protocols for culture of primary human bone cells from explants of cortical mandible bone and for characterization of cell behavior on biomimetic surfaces in terms of strength of adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, and matrix mineralization.