Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (bmMSCs) are widely used for the generation of tissue engineering constructs, since they can differentiate into different cell types occurring in bone tissues. Until now their use for the generation of tissue engineering constructs is limited. All cells inside a tissue engineering construct die within a short period of time after implantation of the construct because vascularization and establishment of connections to the recipient circulatory system is a time consuming process. We therefore compared the influences of bmMSC, VEGF and a combination of both on the early processes of vascularization, utilizing the mice skinfold…
Adequate vascularization of tissue-engineered constructs remains a major challenge in bone grafting. In view of this, we loaded ß-tricalcium-phosphate (ß-TCP) and porous poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) scaffolds via collagen coating with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and studied whether the VEGF loading improves scaffold angiogenesis and vascularization. Dorsal skinfold chambers were implanted into 48 balb/c mice, which were assigned to 6 groups (n = 8 each). Uncoated (controls), collagen-coated, and additionally VEGF-loaded PLGA and ß-TCP scaffolds were inserted into the chambers. Angiogenesis, neovascularization, and leukocyte-endothelial cell interaction were analyzed repeatedly during a 14-day observation period using intravital fluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, VEGF release…