Giulia Gastaldi1,2, Annalia Asti2,3, Manuela Federica Scaffino1, Livia Visai2,4, Enrica Saino2,4, Angela Maria Cometa5, Francesco Benazzo2,3.

1 Department of Physiology, University of Pavia, Pavia-Italy
2 Center of Tissue Engineering (C.I.T.), University of Pavia, Pavia- Italy
3 Orthopaedic and Traumatology Clinic, IRCCS San Matteo, University of Pavia, Pavia-Italy
4 Department of Biochemistry, University of Pavia, Pavia-Italy
5 Oncoematologia Pediatrica, IRCCS San Matteo, Pavia-Italy

ABSTRACT

The use of stem cells in regenerative medicine is an appealing area of research that has received a great deal of interest in recent years. The population called human adipose tissue- derived stem cells (hASCs) share many of the characteristic of its counterpart of

marrow including extensive proliferative potential and the ability to undergo multilineage differentiation along classical mesenchymal lineages: adipogenesis, chondrogenesis, osteogenesis, and myogenesis. The aim of this study was to evaluate with biochemical and morphological methods the adhesion and differentiation of hASCs grown on Trabecular Titanium scaffolds. The hASCs isolated from subcutaneous adipose tissue after digestion with collagenase were seeded on monolayer and on Trabecular Titanium scaffolds and incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2 with osteogenic medium or control medium. The results showed that hASCs were able to adhere to titanium scaffolds, to proliferate, to acquire an osteoblastic-like phenotype, and to produce a calcified extracellular matrix with protein, such as, decorin, fibronectin, osteocalcin, osteonectin, osteopontin, and type I collagen. These data suggest that this kind of scaffold/cells construct is effective to regenerate damaged tissue and to restore the function of bone tissue.