The Ability of Proliferation and Differentiation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells In Vitro in Steroid-induced Osteonecrosis of Femoral Head

Abstract: The aim of the study was to explore the pathogenesis of steroid-induced osteonecrosis of femoral head (ON) and the feasibility of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) transplantation in the treatment of ON. We studied the ability of the proliferation， osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of BMSCs which were isolated from femoral heads of patients with steroid-induced ON. 10 patients with steroid-induced ON were selected and 10 patients with femoral neck fractures without ON were treated as the control group. Bone marrow blood of the femoral heads were collected during the total hip arthroplasty (THA). The BMSCs were isolated by density gradient centrifugation method and cultured to the 3rd passage. The specific antigens on cell surface were detected by flow cytometry. The ability of proliferation， osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation were analyzed by colony-forming unit fibroblast (CFU-F) assay， osteogenic and adipogenic induction. The results showed that specific surface antigen CD44 and CD73 of BMSCs were positive in the ON group. The CFU-F assay showed that the BMSCs obtained from the ON group reduced the amount of colonies compared with the control group. The alkaline phosphatase activity and the calcium nodules of ON group were lower than the control group. But the BMSCS of ON group had the higher ability to produce lipid droplets than the control group. These results showed that BMSCs from patients with steroid-induced ON possess reduced proliferation activity and less capability to differentiate into osteoblasts but more potential to differentiate into adipocytes. The changes of BMSCs proliferation and differentiation ability may be involved in the pathophysiological process of steroid-induced ON.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2015.11.0004