Bone regeneration is a complicate biological process of the skeletal system leading to restoration of the limb function. This process becomes more challenging in a case of critical size defect (CSD) which defined as the smallest defect caused by infection, tumor or trauma that will not heal spontaneously.

A previous study in our lab tested the usage of encapsulating Ethyl Cellulose (Hercules Inc, Wilmington, Del) membrane in CSD as compared to control (no-membrane). The study demonstrated that bone healing was more sufficient in limbs coated with the membrane than the control limbs. Additional approach to the treatment of bone deficiency is the use of multi-potent mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) that are brought into the bone defect in order to induce bone formation.

The objective of this study was to investigate a new polymer formulation in order to produce the best environmental support for adhesion, proliferation and differentiation of MSC.

In this study we found out that with the usage of Polyvinylacetate, PMMC R and PMMC L in PMMC RL PEG 400 [15%], MSC had similar characters to the polystyrene ( a well known ideal platform for MSC). This positive result permitted apparently thanks to creation abilities of:

Hydrogen-bonds between MSC and the partial negative charge on the carboxyl group as well as on the oxygens of the plasticizer that is intertwined within the membrane monomers.

In summary, we have only started to reveal the remarkable potential of using MSC, and there are still many obstacles to overcome. However, applying the findings from this study, namely inserting a membrane coated with MSC into a CSD may become a true biological treatment option.