Cellular, Tissue and Genetic Engineering > Bone Tissue Engineering

Bone Tissue Engineering Research at USC

Esmaiel Jabbari, Associate Professor
Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering

The formation and maintenance of bone is a complex process involving the interactions of cells with bioactive peptide domains attached to the collagenous network or the non-collagenous soluble factors of the extracellular matrix. We have recently discovered in our laboratory that the interaction of bone marrow stromal (BMS) cells with the substrate play a key role in guiding their differentiation pathway. When BMS cells are seeded on collagen type I scaffold (the abundant collagen in bone) and cultured in osteogenic media, they undergo simultaneous maturation and differentiation into osteogenic and vascular cell lineages and modulate the production of mineralized deposits (Figure 1a). Our laboratory has also shown that the reinforcement effect of apatite nanoparticles on the modulus of hydrogel/apatite composites is modulated by a peptide sequence from the terminal region of osteonectin, a major non-collagenous bone extracellular matrix protein involved in regulation of mineralization, cell motility, and matrix degradation (Figure 1b). These findings reveal that bioactive peptides control the stability of the regenerating region, the fate of the migrating cells, and morphogenesis.

We are currently working on the development of multi-domain peptides and their conjugation to a tissue engineered (TE) scaffold to control coordinated biological functions leading to the formation of a mineralized/vascularized matrix. The focus of our research is on bioactive peptides to sequentially coordinate attachment, migration, and proliferation of migrating BMS cells, and degrade the TE scaffold enzymatically concurrent with cell migration and matrix production.