A team of scientists from the Technical University of Eindhoven and the Medical Center of the University of Nijmegen im.
Saint Radbod of Utrecht (Netherlands) described the mechanism of the appearance of bone tissue at an early stage and grew an organoid from stem cells - a simplified version of human bone.
This is reported in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
The researchers were faced with the task of getting an idea of the bone tissue, which is formed in the human body at an early stage.
Recall that three types of cells play the main role in the formation of bones: osteoblasts (young cells, create new tissue), osteoclasts (destroy old ones) and osteocytes (mature cells, the main type of bone tissue).
Scientists note that earlier most of the research focused on a specific type of cells, while this time they managed to form an organoid, similar to a real bone, from two types of cells: osteoblasts and osteocytes.
“This enables us to show for the first time a complete picture of the early stages of the bone formation process,” said Sandra Hofmann, Associate Professor in Bone Bioengineering at Eindhoven University of Technology.
The organoid grown from stem cells looked like real human bone at an early stage of development and had the same characteristics, the researchers say.
Both types of cells presented in it produced proteins necessary for normal functioning, and the intercellular substance of bone tissue (matrix) did not differ in any way from the present.
Scientists note that the entire process of bone formation has not yet been fully investigated, but the results they obtained open up prospects for solving this natural phenomenon.
“Bone is 99% collagen and minerals, but there are 1% more proteins that are critical to the successful formation of bone.
So what role do these proteins play?
How do they promote bone formation?
Before that, we had no opportunity to observe the main stages of this process at the molecular level, ”explains Nico Sommerdijk, professor at the University of Nijmegen Medical Center.
Scientists believe that their work in the future will lead to the creation of a unique technology of personalized medicine, will help restore bone tissue, treat severe hereditary diseases such as Lobstein-Vrolik disease (“crystal man” disease).
They are confident that in the future it will be possible to grow full-fledged hard tissue samples from bone marrow stem cells, intended for laboratory selection of drugs and individual treatment regimens for patients.
“It should be borne in mind that many diseases arise at the molecular level, and they are treated there as well.
In fact, we now have a simple system, enclosed in a reliable environment where we can dig and observe how bone cells react to external influences, ”summed up Anat Akiva, Associate Professor in Cytology at the University of Nijmegen Medical Center.