Search for content and authors
 

Omentum major as potential source of osteogenic cells for tissue engineering (preliminary report)

Pawel Kowalczyk 1Małgorzata Lewandowska-Szumieł Wojciech Lisik 2Maciej Kosieradzki 2Maciej Siński 3Zbigniew Wierzbicki 2Jacek Przybylski 1

1. Medical University of Warsaw, Department of Biophysics and Human Physiology, Chałubińskiego 5, Warszawa 02-004, Poland
2. Medical University of Warsaw, Department of General and Transplantation Surgery, Warszawa, Poland
3. Medical University of Warsaw, Department of Internal Medicine and Hypertension, Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

For skeletal tissue engineering, autologous stem cells are obtained from bone marrow (BM). However, BM procurement procedures may be painful and may yield a low number of stem cells upon processing. There is a need for other convenient stem cells sources.
The omentum major is potential source of mesenchymal tissues. Thus the aim of this study was to determine whether stem cells potentially present in the human omentum major could differentiate into osteogenic tissue. Cells harvested from tissue obtained during surgery, which would be otherwise discarded, were used in the experiment. The collected cells were incubated in a 96-well plate (15000 cells per well) per week in control media (i.e. DMEM + 10% FBS) without vitamin C (C-) and with vitamin C (C+), and media enriched with: vitamin D3 (C+ D3+), dexamethasone (C+ DEXA+) or demineralized bone matrix (C+ DBM+). Human osteoblasts were used as a control. Osteocalcin level and alkaline phosphatase activity (AP) were compared between groups.
The addition of C+ DBM into medium elevated the level of osteocalcin both in omentum-derived cells and osteoblasts. Whereas C+ DEXA+ and C+ D3+ increased AP activity in all cell populations.
It is suggested that the omentum major contains multipotent cells with osteogenic ptential. Thus omentum may be taken into account as potential source of stem cells for skeletal reconstruction.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the State Committee of Scientific Research (grant No. 05/PBZ-KBN-082/2002/06).

 

Legal notice
  • Legal notice:
 

Related papers

Presentation: oral at E-MRS Fall Meeting 2003, Symposium E, by Pawel Kowalczyk
See On-line Journal of E-MRS Fall Meeting 2003

Submitted: 2003-07-21 13:17
Revised:   2009-06-08 12:55