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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Single-Cell Calcium Imaging for Studying the Activation of Calcium Ion Channels
Published on: December 13, 2024
Calcium and phosphate ions as simple signaling molecules with versatile osteoinductivity
Soheila Ali Akbari Ghavimi1, Brittany N Allen2, Jessica L Stromsdorfer1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States of America.
None:
Due to the continually increasing clinical need to heal large bone defects, synthetic bone graft substitutes have become ever more necessary with calcium phosphates (CaP) widely used due to their similarity to the mineral component of bone. In this research, different concentrations of calcium ions (Ca2+), phosphate ions (Pi), or their combination were provided to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to evaluate their influence on proliferation and differentiation. The results suggest that 1-16 mM Ca2+ and 1-8 mM Pi is osteoinductive, but not cytotoxic. Furthermore, three distinct calcium phosphates (i.e. monobasic, dibasic, and hydroxyapatite) with different dissolution rates were investigated for their Ca2+ and Pi release. These biomaterials were then adjusted to release ion concentrations within the established therapeutics window for which MSC bioactivity was assessed. These findings suggest that CaP-based biomaterials can be leveraged to achieve Ca2+ and Pi dose-dependent osteoinduction for bone regenerative engineering applications.
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