Abstract
Background: The objective of this study is to assess if infusion of osteoblasts can temporarily reverse osteoporosis in rats. Methods: Osteoporosis was induced in 20 female Sprague-Dawley rats by performing ovariectomy (OVX) that was carried out at 4 weeks of age. At 3 months a biopsy of the iliac crest was made to assess the bone quality and the same site bone marrow was harvested. From the bone marrow aspirate, MSCs were separated. Osteoblasts were then generated and were characterized using Alizarin red staining. Osteoblasts were injected in the tail vein of 10 rats. Two weeks after the injection of osteoblasts, a second biopsy was done. Animals were euthanized after 8 weeks of osteoblasts infusion by overdose of ketamine mixed with xylazine. The whole femurs and lumbar spine were dissected and the specimens were stored in 2% formalin. The specimens were analyzed using HRpQCT (High-resolution peripheral quantitative computerized tomography (μCT 100, SCANCO Medical AG, Brüttisellen, Switzerland). Results: In all the 10 animals from which bone aspiration was performed, osteoblasts were cultured and transplanted. Analysis showed that there was significant bone formation at bone sites of distal femur and lumbar spine (<0.001), with increased number of trabeculae and thickness (P<0.001). Further analysis revealed that there was robust bone formation in the animals that had osteoblasts injection. Conclusions: This preliminary study indicates that osteoblasts infusion can lead to new bone formation in osteoporosis induced by ovariectomy in rats.
Highlights
Osteoporosis is a disease in which the net loss of bone exceeds bone formation and it occurs in women after estrogen loss in postmenopausal age[2,3,4]
Drug therapy for osteoporosis is effective but comes with side effects like any other drug, the effects ranging from simple gastric irritation, myalgias, arthralgias, hypocalcemia, osteonecrosis of jaw to serious infections[6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Our result shows and we speculate that the effect observed was due to homing of the infused osteoblasts on to the bone surface rather in the other tissues of the body to produce the desired results.Wang et al [17] used Mesenchymal Stimulating Cells (MSCs) and reported that these cells increased the strength in the osteoporotic bone, while Ocarino et al (2010)[18] injected BMMSCs in the bone marrow of osteoporotic rats and concluded that osteoporosis can be treated by injection of BMMSCs
Summary
Osteoporosis is a disease in which the net loss of bone exceeds bone formation and it occurs in women after estrogen loss in postmenopausal age[2,3,4]. Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) is a major public health epidemic world over. The importance of PMO is very clear as with expected increased aging of the world population the complications such as the hip fractures will treble to over six million a year by 2050[5]. Many trials are ongoing using MSCs in various conditions. The objective of this study is to assess if infusion of osteoblasts can temporarily reverse osteoporosis in rats
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