Cell-loaded Titanium Fiber Mesh Constructs for the Treatment of Bone Defects

Objective: Currently, due to advances in biological as well as biomaterial sciences, novel approaches become available to stimulate bone repair. These innovative strategies include the use of so-called scaffold materials in combination with bone growth stimulating factors and/or osteogenic cells. The purpose of this study was to get more insight in the potential of titanium fiber mesh provided with marrow stromal cells (MSC’s) to regenerate critical sized cranial bone defects. Methods: Therefore, 24 titanium fiber mesh discs were provided with rat MSC’s (TiRBM), subcultured for 1 day and placed in a circular 7 mm bone defect as created in the cranium of rats. Twenty-four non cell-loaded (Ti) implants were included as controls. All implants were retrieved after 3, 15 and 30 days (n=8) and histological evaluation was done. Results: After 3 days of implantation, no bone tissue was present in TiRBM and Ti implants. After 15 days of implantation, 2 of the eight TiRBM implants showed bone union at the original bone defect borders. For the 15 day Ti implants no union was observed. Further, the 15 day TiRBM implants were filled for 22±10% of their volume with bone. The 15 day Ti implants showed only 1.5±3.5% of bone. This difference was significant (P=0.0005). After 30 days of implantation, 5 out of 8 TiRBM implants and 2 out of 8 Ti implants showed union at the skull bone-implant interface. Also, significantly more bone (P=0.0128) was formed in the TiRBM (40±12.5%) implants compared with the Ti (17±14.5%) implants. Conclusion: On basis of our results, we conclude that inoculating titanium fiber mesh with MSC’s can improve the bone healing capacity of this material.