Collagen-Calcium Phosphate Cement Scaffolds for Nonviral Gene Delivery

摘要

Calcium phosphate (CaP) based approaches are an attractive option for non-viral plasmid DNA transfection into cultured cells'. The purpose of this work was to develop a CaP-collagen scaffold for the non-viral delivery of the plasmid encoding the osteoinductive protein BMP-7. The purpose was to provide a local and prolonged release of this growth factor by the cells seeded or migrating within the scaffold. The CaP-collagen scaffold was obtained by the combination of a calcium phosphate cement (CPC) in a collagen template. The CPC was composed of a-tricalcium phosphate (a-TCP), which upon hydrolysis, transforms into hydroxyapatite (HA). The specific aim of this study was to evaluate the effect on cell behavior of increasing amounts of CPC in the scaffolds. The delivery of the BMP-7 plasmid incorporated in the scaffolds (Stryker Biotech, Hopkinton, MA) into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro and expression of the protein was also assessed when varying the amount of plasmid incorporated.